Identitarian movement

The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a pan-European nationalist, ethno-nationalist,^[2][3][4] far-right^[5][6][4] ideological movement centred on the preservation of white European identity, which it claims is under existential threat from multiculturalism, immigration, and globalisation.^[4] Originating in France in the 2000s as Bloc Identitaire (Identitarian Bloc), with its youth wing Generation Identity (GI), the movement later expanded to other European countries in the 2010s. Identitarian ideology takes its sources in the interwar Conservative Revolution and, more directly, in the Nouvelle Droite, a far-right political movement that appeared in France in the 1960s. Essayists Alain de Benoist, Dominique Venner, Pierre Vial, Guillaume Faye and Renaud Camus are considered the main ideological sources of the Identitarian movement.^[1]

Rooted in an anti-universalist, anti-globalist, anti-liberal, anti-Islam, and anti-multiculturalist worldview, the Identitarian movement sees ethnic, cultural, and racial identities as fundamental. It asserts that white Europeans face demographic and cultural extinction due to declining birth rates, extra-European immigration, and pro-diversity policies, a conspiracy theory that is known as the "Great Replacement".^[4] As a political solution to these perceived threat, Identitarians advocate for pan-European nationalism, localism, ethnopluralism, and remigration.^[3][7][8][4] They are opposed to cultural mixing and promote the preservation of homogeneous ethno-cultural entities,^[9][3] generally to the exclusion of extra-European migrants and descendants of immigrants,^[10][11][12] and may espouse ideas considered xenophobic and racialist. Influenced by New Right metapolitics, they do not seek direct electoral results, but rather to provoke long-term social transformations and eventually achieve cultural hegemony and popular adherence to their ideas.^[13][14]

The movement is most notable in Europe, and although rooted in Western Europe, it has spread more rapidly to the eastern part of the continent through conscious efforts of the likes of Faye.^[15] It also has adherents among white nationalists in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.^[16] The United States–based Southern Poverty Law Center considers many of these organisations to be hate groups, describing them as racist, exclusionary, and in favour of ethnic separatism for whites.^[17] In 2019, the Identitarian Movement was classified by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremist. In 2021, the French group Generation Identity was banned for racial incitement, violence, and paramilitary ties.^[17]