They Came, They Saw, They Gave the Nazi Salute

On Saturday, September 5, the far right marched through Copenhagen. They fired fireworks at counter-demonstrators and gave Nazi salutes with their right arms, to the general indifference of the police, the media, and politicians. This must be met with political resistance.


On Saturday, September 5, the far right set out on a long march from Trianglen in Østerbro. It was an unlikely gathering: young men in national team shirts, bald men wearing Holger Danske merchandise, masked hooligan types, village oddballs, and ordinary Danish families with the Danish flag draped over their shoulders.

They came, they saw, they gave the Nazi salute. And when they approached the registered counter-demonstration near Østerport, participants in the march attacked the counter-demonstrators. They threw beer cans and bangers and fired distress flares. And the police? They stood and watched.


The only people who attempted to stop the patriots from carrying out their plans were some demonstration stewards. The “remigration” demonstration had apparently attracted not only the peaceful, concerned fascists its organisers had expected, but also militant, masked firework-throwers, who eventually disappeared into the metro.

The counter-demonstration on Dag Hammarskjölds Allé was kept on the pavement while the police paraded their German shepherds around it.

Photo: Mikael Hertoft — The counter-demonstration was supposed to remain on the pavement.

Elsewhere in the city, other counter-demonstrations attempted to stop the far right as it marched through Copenhagen. They were stopped using the means we know all too well when activists sit down in a road or in front of a door: batons.

Holger Danske, the Crusaders and Everyone Else

And so the beer-drinking, swaying march of the Danes made its way through the city. National team shirts, hoodies, T-shirts bearing runes, and crusader capes. “Our Denmark,” as their slogan put it.

The event was organised by the Facebook group Det Danske Folk and United Lion & Sun Nordic, a Danish-Iranian activist group that supports the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi. Who would have put money on these two groups organising a demonstration together?

Eventually, the remnants of the march reached the square by Palads Cinema. There were probably around 500 people at that point. The police were also present in large numbers here and had, among other things, made sure to remove a young man with long hair and a partisan scarf from the area.

A banger was thrown, and the demonstration then broke up. Many continued towards Tivoli.

Photo: Jonas Neivelt — The demonstration has reached Palads.

But before they got that far, they had to pass a couple of older citizens holding a sign bearing the modest message: “Racism – fuck off.”

One of them was sitting on her rollator. Beer was poured over her, she was threatened and struck in the head. The police officers standing beside her — and they really were right beside her — explained their failure to intervene, according to the woman herself, by saying that they were traffic police.

You can laugh at it when you see an increasingly drunken march of people in crusader costumes, full-body tattoos and flags bearing runes, staggering through Copenhagen. Holger Danske is probably still sleeping off his hangover in his casemates.

But you cannot simply laugh it away.

Because although there may have been only 700 participants, as Redox reports, it was, according to Redox, the largest far-right demonstration in Denmark since the Second World War.

A Popular Front

Where such marches were previously relegated to the general ridicule of the public in a field outside Solrød, the far right is now so confident that it can demonstrate in broad daylight in the capital of the country.

Should they not be allowed to do so?

They probably should — freedom of expression also applies to fascists. But freedom of expression does not entail a right to attack other people. Nor does it mean that the rest of society should remain passive while far-right extremists make their presence increasingly normal.


The rest of us can demand that the police take it seriously when far-right demonstrators strike women sitting on rollators in the head, and when far-right demonstrators fire fireworks at other people.

We can also expect broader political support for antifascism from our politicians. Apart from Enhedslisten (the Red–Green Alliance) and Alternativet (The Alternative), only one local branch of SF (the Socialist People’s Party) had bothered to support the registered counter-demonstration.

Apart from the left’s usual suspects, the strongest condemnation of the demonstration came from Mona Juul of the Conservative Party.

This is, to put it mildly, hardly an antifascist popular front.

But perhaps it is time for one to emerge.

Det Danske Folk has already called for a new march on October 17. At the weekend’s demonstration, there were more counter-demonstrators than patriotic Danes.

In October, there must be many more antifascists.

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