Vigilante groups in the Nordic countries

One of the main defining characteristics of a state is that it successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within its territory. Recently, a number of organised groups in the Nordic countries have declared that the state is no longer fulfilling its part of the social contract of providing security to the citizens against crime and threats from foreigners (and Muslims in particular), and in particular their alleged sexual harassment of local women. As a consequence, these vigilante groups challenge the stat’s monopoly of violence. “If the State does not defend us, we will do it ourselves – with all necessary means”, the Danish group “Daneværn” puts it. A similar movement, “Soldiers of Odin”, has popped up in Finland, with offshoots in Norway. In Sweden, the neo-Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement is also patrolling to provide safety in the streets, as they claim. The core activists are well-known faces from far-right and anti-Islam movements but some of the groups also attract people with no such ties. This paper will discuss why and how these vigilante groups from the far right have emerged and had a boost recently, and how they are clashing with another form of vigilante group from the extreme left. Militant antiracists such as Anti-Fascist Action see it as their mission that there will be “No Nazis in our streets!”. They do not obey the state’s monopoly on violence either.