Ahead of Spain’s general election next week and the prospect of a far right party entering a coalition government, The Ferret looks back at our own coverage of the far right in Scotland.
Since our inception in 2015, The Ferret has produced more than 50 reports documenting the activities of the far right in Scotland, and exposing the reality behind the benign image misleadingly portrayed by various white nationalist groups.
Our investigations have exposed links between white nationalist groups, neo-Nazis and mainstream political parties.
In 2017, for example, we revealed that a former member of UKIP had become a recruiter for Scottish Dawn, a neo-Nazi group actively recruiting young people across Scotland.
Our undercover investigation revealed Scottish Dawn contained members of a banned terror group called National Action, operating under a new guise. The Home Office proscribed Scottish Dawn as a terrorist cell following our report.
Announcing the ban, the then-home secretary, Amber Rudd, said: “National Action is a vile racist, homophobic and anti-semitic group which glorifies violence and stirs up hatred while promoting their poisonous ideology and I will not allow them to masquerade under different names.”
We also revealed that far right groups were active on university campuses and that members of a white nationalist group called Patriotic Alternative Scotland possessed weapons and said people should kill “for the greater good”.
More recently, we revealed neo-Nazis attended protests in Erskine, Renfrewshire, against asylum seekers.
The Ferret has also focused on the far right internationally and we travelled to Greece to cover the landmark trial of the neo-Nazi political party, Golden Dawn, whose members were convicted of operating a criminal organisation that masqueraded as a political party.
Elsewhere in Europe, the far right is rising — in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden — and also in Spain, where more than 60 per cent of Spaniards are reportedly worried about the prospect of a coalition government that includes the far right Vox party. Spaniards will vote on 23 July.
In the meantime, keep an eye on all Ferret channels in the next few days as we revisit some of the stories, reports and podcasts we have produced over the past eight years around far right extremism. And if you’d like to help us do more, become a member or make a one-off donation today.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for what we should look at next? Get in touch at: contact@theferret.scot
