by Drieu Godefridi
The State Department leaves no room for ambiguity: "Left-wing terrorism does not enjoy ideological immunity." Why is there not the same moral clarity in Western Europe?
The terrorist designation by the US federal government, which is not a slogan, derives from Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1189) and from Executive Order 13224 (2001, Bush). Any foreign organization that threatens the security of US nationals or US national security must be placed on the FTO list and have its assets seized.
The criteria are explicit: systematic use of violence, transnational scope, political intent. Antifa meets all three. It is a transnational terrorist organization whose existence much of the mainstream media stubbornly refuse to acknowledge.
The State Department leaves no room for ambiguity: "Left-wing terrorism does not enjoy ideological immunity." Why is there not the same moral clarity in Western Europe?
The American decision -- neither an ideological crusade nor a publicity stunt -- is a proportionate response to proven crimes. The four designated groups are not "radical activists": they are terrorists who kill, maim and destroy in the name of an outdated totalitarian utopia -- or even a not-outdated one -- that aligns itself with Islamic jihadists declaring that they would like to take over the planet. Liberal democracies have a duty to defend themselves — without complacency, without naïveté, and with the full rigor of the law.
Can we in Europe expect Antifa members to be intercepted in the same manner as drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean?
On November 13, 2025, the US State Department added four European terrorist organizations to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs): Antifa Ost (Germany), the International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greece).
This decision by the US administration was based on overwhelming evidence: knife and hammer attacks, shootings, bombings and the use of improvised explosive devices that targeted civilians, public infrastructure and private businesses.
The move forms part of a wider transatlantic dynamic launched by Hungary. In September 2025, the Hungarian government -- after a series of attacks in Budapest in which Antifa Ost torched police vehicles, destroyed shops, and carried out targeted assaults on right-wing activists -- designated the group as a terrorist organization. Earlier in September, the US classified Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
The attacks in Hungary occurred in February 2023, during the commemoration of "Honor Day," marking the end of the Second World War. Five coordinated assaults targeted nine individuals perceived as "right-wing activists." The attackers — fifteen militants, including Germans and Italians — used hammers, telescopic batons, tear gas and brass knuckles. Four of the victims sustained serious injuries: multiple fractures, head trauma and irreversible damage. These actions, which led to arrests in Hungary, Germany and Italy, sparked a diplomatic scandal. The election of Italian citizen Ilaria Salis — allegedly one of the perpetrators of the violent attacks — to the European Parliament in 2024 granted her parliamentary immunity. As a co-author of these despicable acts, she is now funded by the European taxpayer. Salis spent several months in detention in Hungary over her alleged role in the assaults, but after she was elected as an MEP, the parliamentary immunity she gained resulted in her release.
Washington has begun applying the same method it uses against Islamist organizations and drug cartels: shutting these networks out of the American and international financial system, freezing their assets and prosecuting all those who provide logistical or ideological support. The consequences are immediate: any person or entity residing in the United States who materially assists these groups faces penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
Documented Violence, Not Rhetoric
Antifa Ost, based in Leipzig and Berlin, has claimed responsibility for dozens of assaults. These include a hammer attack on a conservative gathering in Saxony and arson at a Bavarian police training center. The International Revolutionary Front, active in Milan and Turin, has circulated manuals on making homemade explosives and has staged ambushes against marches of trade-unions it deems "reformist." In Greece, two of the organizations designated as FTOs by the State Department operate in tandem: Armed Proletarian Justice claimed responsibility for planting a bomb near the riot police headquarters in Goudi, Greece on December 18, 2023; Revolutionary Class Self-Defense claimed responsibility for two IED attacks targeting the Greece Ministry of Labor (February 3, 2024) and the Hellenic Train offices (April 11, 2025).
These acts were not spontaneous riots but the expression of an explicit doctrine: "strike the class enemy wherever he is found," a mantra repeated in communiqués posted on encrypted platforms, sometimes relayed by a press that romanticizes violence — provided it is "left-wing." The phrase "strike the class enemy wherever he is found" appears to echo Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, often used in revolutionary contexts to justify direct action against perceived capitalist or fascist oppressors. While direct, verbatim uses by self-identified Antifa groups are rare in public records (due to their decentralized and sometimes encrypted nature), it has been documented in analyses of their internal doctrines. Below are key examples in the US:
"The border is everywhere. We can attack it anywhere." (2019). This quote comes from Willem van Spronsen, a self-described Antifa activist who firebombed an ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, on July 13, 2019, in an attack that wounded four officers. The full document, titled "I Am Antifa," calls for armed resistance against "fascist" institutions such as ICE, and frames borders as a capitalist tool of oppression. It was widely circulated in Portland Antifa circles as inspirational propaganda and aligns with calls to strike "enemies" (such as the capital or the state) at any area of vulnerability.
Video from a 2018 Antifa rally, shared on X, where Antifa militants chanted "Anytime, Anyplace, Punch a NAZI In The Face"while carrying signs such as "It Takes Bullet to Bash Fash." This promotes on-sight violence against perceived class/racial enemies, disavowed by some Democrats but unchallenged broadly.
"On Sight" Retaliation Calls (2020 Portland Homicide Response). After the killing of Patriot Prayer member Aaron Danielson, Antifa Telegram channels, evidently assuming the victim was an ally of the enemy, called for immediate murderous payback against "fash" (fascists). This recommendation, in practice, reflects "strike wherever found".
"Do Crime" and Economic Disruption Mottos. Antifa's self-admitted slogan "Do crime" (see Andy Ngo's 2021 book, Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy) aims to foster chaos for revolution, including strikes at the "heart" of our cities by general disruptions.
The iconography is always the same: black hoods, hammers, Molotov cocktails, anarcho-communist symbols. The image attached to the State Department communiqué — a masked individual holding an iron bar beating a passer-by lying on the ground — is not staged. It corresponds to footage authenticated by Europol and Germany's Bundeskriminalamt.
A Legal Response, Not an Ideological One
The terrorist designation by the US federal government, which is not a slogan, derives from Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1189) and from Executive Order 13224 (2001, Bush). Any foreign organization that threatens the security of US nationals or US national security must be placed on the FTO list and have its assets seized.
The criteria are explicit: systematic use of violence, transnational scope and political intent. Antifa meets all three. It is a transnational terrorist organization whose existence much of the mainstream media stubbornly refuse to acknowledge.
Some argue that these groups are "anti-fascist," as though that alone constituted a legal justification for an onslaught. If you want to beat your dog, you might claim it has rabies. Ironically, these groups behave just like the fascists. Historical anti-fascism — the armed resistance to Nazism — bears no resemblance to today's left, which in 2025 targets moderate democratic politicians, liberal journalists and business owners accused of "capitalist complicity," while extending sympathy to Islamist terrorism in the name of "convergence of struggle" (see Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, 2017.) The State Department leaves no room for ambiguity: "Left-wing terrorism does not enjoy ideological immunity." Why is there not the same moral clarity in Western Europe?
Transatlantic Implications
The shockwave extends far beyond the United States. Antifa is now a legitimate target for every instrument of the rule of law.
The European Union, under pressure from Hungary and Poland, is considering harmonizing its own terrorist list. Financial flows. such as donations via cryptocurrencies, are being tracked by the US Treasury and Germany's Federal Intelligence Service. German universities where certain Antifa Ost factions openly recruited students have received federal orders to cooperate.
Freedom to Kill, Provided You Are on the Left?
Criticism of capitalism, peaceful protest and the revival of communist fantasies of equal inequality are not what is at issue here. In the United States, the First Amendment stops where material incitement to violence begins — the 1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio precedent. What the State Department's decision underscores is that murder and hammer attacks are not acceptable free speech, even when committed by "left-wing" militants.
End of Impunity: Antifa, Public Enemy No. 1
The American decision -- neither an ideological crusade nor a publicity stunt -- is a proportionate response to proven crimes. The four designated groups are not "radical activists": they are terrorists who kill, maim and destroy in the name of an outdated totalitarian utopia -- or even a not-outdated one -- that aligns itself with Islamic jihadists declaring that they would like to take over the planet (such as here and here). Liberal democracies have a duty to defend themselves — without complacency, without naïveté, and with the full rigor of the law.
Can we in Europe expect Antifa members to be intercepted in the same manner as drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean?
Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22076/antifa-public-enemy
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