Giovanni Savino, ISS RANEPA, Moscow

Anti-vaxxer discourse in the European Far-Right

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the life of the world, and had an unprecedented impact on politics and society. The shock caused by the diffusion of the disease, the adoption of policies aimed to fight and contain COVID-19, and the search for an exit strategy from the emergence had many side effects. Medical research made colossal progress, making available vaccines in just few months.

The European Far-Right, from the very beginning of the pandemic, adopted views coming from conspiracy theories. The demonstrations and meetings against lockdown and prevention measures in Germany, Italy and France saw Neo-Fascist, Neo-Nazi and Far-Right organizations as active promoters, and there were attempts to set broader fronts with various groups on a conspirational thinking agenda, with alternate results. This tendency was seen too in Russia, where denialist theories about COVID-19 were promoted by Far-Right media and social network pages.

The vaccination campaign in EU and Russia is seen, by Far-Right activists, as the proof of a general conspiracy aimed to annihilate people, in the framework of the Great Reset. Aim of the report is to analyze the anti-vaxxer discourse in the European Far-Right as part of a new rebranding of Far-Right extremism.