Right-wing extremism:

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4,000 people recently gathered in Dornbirn to send a clear signal against right-wing extremism.(Bild: Shourot Maurice)

Right-wing extremist ideas are increasingly creeping into the heart of society. This is why a counter-movement has formed - also in Vorarlberg. Historian Harald Walser explains why a clear stance is important for democracy.

Recently, 4,000 people gathered on Dornbirn's market square to set an example against right-wing extremism. Among them were representatives of human rights NGOs, politicians, business people, but also many "normal" citizens with their children. The often-cited "silent middle" also stood up in the Ländle, just as hundreds of thousands of people had already taken to the streets in other Austrian and German cities. An ominous meeting of right-wing extremists in Potsdam, at which, according to the research network "Correctiv", Austrian Martin Sellner from the far-right Identitarian Movement spoke about millions of "remigration" from Germany, was the straw that broke the camel's back. And it was precisely this Identitarian Movement that FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl recently trivialized by calling it a "right-wing NGO" - completely ignoring the fact that the group is being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution due to its extreme right-wing ideas.