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To say that 2020 was a memorable year would be an understatement. While the COVID-19 pandemic overshadowed all else and would quickly have a lasting impact on our daily lives, other events related to the radical right soon surfaced.

The year started off with tragedy as a shooter in Hanau, Germany opened fire targeting Turkish “immigrants” (although in reality German citizens). Driven by racist and misogynist conspiracy theories, the terrorist uploaded a manifesto and YouTube video shortly before carrying out the attack. Only a few days later, riots broke out in New Delhi, India, as Hindu nationalist mobs descended onto Muslim neighbourhoods in brazen acts of violence that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. The riots were incited by far right politicians who equated protesters—of a newly passed bill that discriminates citizenship based on religion—as anti-national and worthy targets of murder.

Soon after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March, we witnessed radical right leaders enact sweeping authoritarian powers, weaponizing upon societal instability to bolster their agendas. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary passed legislation that would allow the prime minister to rule by decree indefinitely, thus further contributing to erosion of democracy. Meanwhile, Russia’s constitutional referendum outcome secured Vladimir Putin power in office until 2036. Other radical right world leaders who later tested positive for COVID-19, such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, continued to promote falsehoods steeped in anti-science and anti-expert claims. Fear of democratic backsliding became entrenched as panic surrounding the coronavirus spiked across the world.

While anti-mask protests gained strongholds in North America and Europe, another social movement started taking to the streets. The gruesome murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota mobilized a summer of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. and those in international solidarity. Championing the call for police reform, however, soon faced backlash from far right counter-protestors. Militia groups such as the self-described Boogaloo Bois, and male supremacist organizations like the Proud Boys, began roaming the streets intimidating BLM protestors, at times with direct violence. Coupled with mounting unemployment levels and economic hardship as a consequence of the pandemic, and social media disinformation circulating at unprecedented rates, 2020 witnessed the height of political polarization.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government charged a young man with the first ever designated case of an “incel” attack. Although terrorist attacks have been carried out by self-described incels in the past, the recognition of this hateful, violent misogynistic ideology as a motivation for murder added weight to an increasing area of national security concern. Growing incel online communities is not the only digital network with deadly offline effects that rose to prominence last year. Soon enough, QAnon began appearing in media headlines. This conspiracy theory, which dates back to 2017 on the imageboard 4chan, advocates that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles, most of whom are prominent politicians from the Democratic Party, are running a global child sex-trafficking ring. This group of elites are supposedly plotting against Donald Trump, who is heroically defending against their pursuits. Information concerning new developments are released in small increments by an anonymous user who goes by the name “Q”, a person claiming to have high-level security clearance in the American government with access to classified information.

The rise in popularity of QAnon adherents coalesced with their increasing visibility at Trump rallies and rapid sharing of disinformation on social media in the buildup to the U.S. presidential election. Although American in origin, the QAnon movement spread to other countries, including the UK, France, Germany, and Japan. Combined with false narratives concerning the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and a summer of social unrest, many feared impending violence in the run-up to election day. Such violence was delayed, however, until the beginning of 2021 when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol following incitement to violence by the president. After months of claiming election fraud and failure to concede to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Trump galvanized this group of insurrectionists in a final display before leaving office.

In spite of these worrying developments, particularly concerning the role of far right actors, 2020 was a year that also witnessed positive events. A nationwide law that would prohibit abortion in Poland was delayed implementation after large scale protests, delivering a major blow to the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and narrowly re-elected President Andrezj Duda. The end of the year also saw activists celebrating Argentina’s passage of legalizing abortion, a massive step that may influence a domino effect in the region. Both of these advances gives hope towards expanding women’s reproductive rights in the future.

In Greece, the trial of the openly neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn with the court ruling its role as a criminal organization, was met with widespread jubilation. Although this does not signal the end of the far right in Greece, the verdict provides much needed vindication to victims and their families. It further sends a pivotal message concerning the importance of justice in upholding the rule of law. Meanwhile, Belarusians protested for free and fair elections in the face of authoritarianism. Although ongoing, the demand for democracy in Belarus remains strong. And despite acts of state-sponsored violence, a youth-led movement in Nigeria against police brutality and human rights abuses has been likened to once-in-a-generation change.

Finally, a Biden-Harris administration achieved through the peaceful transfer of power signals a benchmark of liberal democracy. The administration has already dedicated efforts towards reviewing and assessing domestic violent extremism as a serious threat to public safety. While some criticism can, and should, be levied against this approach, it is a welcome step in the right direction towards countering the far right.

This Yearbook features contributions by academic, practitioner, and policy Fellows at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR), providing a holistic overview of radical right activity in 2020 in relation to global events. CARR was established in 2018 and is chaired by a group of researchers: Professor Matthew Feldman, Dr William Allchorn, Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Dr Archie Henderson, Professor Tamir Bar-On, Dr Eviane Leidig, Bàrbara Molas, and Augusta Dell’Omo. Special thanks to Pragya Rai and James Hardy for their assistance in compiling this Yearbook

The following entries comprise only a small amount of the hundreds of blog posts written by our Fellows as part of the CARR Insight Blog (radicalrightanalysis.com). The increased visibility and readership of these blog posts are in great part due to CARR’s media partners where several of these posts were first published by openDemocracy, Fair Observer, and Rantt Media. An additional thanks goes to Walid Houri, Anna Pivovarchuk, and Ahmed Baba, for their editorial cooperation and dedication.

The Yearbook begins by returning to a recurrent theme—exploring how studies of authoritarianism and fascism can offer insight into explaining developments today—before turning to radical right nationalist imaginaries and memory reconstruction. It then switches to an empirical focus, analysing terrorist events in 2020 not only enacted by the perpetrator and their broader ecosystems of radicalization, but also detailing those harmed in the process and offering counter-terrorism recommendations.

Of course, it would be remiss to avoid reflections of radical right responses during the pandemic, discussed extensively in the following section of the Yearbook. Succeeding this are important assessments of the relationship between the radical right and Black Lives Matter, policing, and military presence. Technology has been especially crucial in radical right communication, recruitment, radicalization, and mobilization in these contexts, which is examined in the next section.

The Yearbook then situates the ideological and intellectual undercurrents of the radical right, often targeting left-wing academia and scientific experts. Added to this list of “enemies” is an effort towards controlling sexuality, reproduction, and gender norms, which is explored by several authors.

Penultimately, the Yearbook compares both the strengths and weaknesses of the radical right in 2020 with respect to political parties. New voter strongholds are identified, as well as areas of decline in radical right support and acceptance. Lastly, it concludes by exploring a wide array of approaches to countering the radical right, including much needed online and offline solutions.

This comprehensive and timely edited volume maps the radical right in 2020 with the aim of disseminating essential knowledge of this phenomenon to a broad audience of scholars, educators, practitioners, policymakers, security services, journalists, and the general public. We hope that the analysis provided by these leading experts will aid towards a more nuanced understanding of the radical right and effective counter responses in challenging this threat to democracy.

Dr Eviane Leidig

Oslo, Norway

January 2021