Switzerland is home to a neonazi party founded in the greatest secrecy

Otto R. (second from the left) und Hansjörg F. (second from the right) during the National Party Foundation three years ago.Image: ZVG / CH Media

Unknown to the general public when it has been born for three years, a movement was born on the ashes of the Swiss national party, which had stopped its activities in 2022. Brief meeting with its founder.

Kurt Pelda / CH Media

What is the meaning of founding a new party if it largely evolves in hiding? On the one hand, the founders hope to maintain anonymity, for fear of losing their jobs. On the other hand, they count on the status of party to protect themselves from the surveillance exercised by the intelligence services and the police.

In recent years, to the right of the UDC, it is above all the group identity jung tat which has stood out. As its name suggests, this movement is exclusively addressed to young people, mainly to men.

Since the disappearance of the Party of the Swiss Nationalist (PNS) in 2022, many older activists from the far -right scene have been found without political anchoring.

A name to avoid arguments

In this context, it is hardly surprising that efforts were quickly committed to found a new party after the end of the PNS. However, this project was slowed down by the lack of funding, ideological differences, and the lack of will of many right -wing extremists to expose themselves or actively.

This is finally how the National Party (National Party) in born. Apart from a postal box in Weinfelden, in the canton of Thurgovie, the party has an email address and a rudimentary website, it remains completely absent from the public scene.

It is only thanks to a vast data leak transmitted to this newspaper that we discover today which has really given the impetus for the creation of the national party, and what were the motivations. Among the names that appear, we find former notorious activists of National Socialism, formerly active within the PNS or in other Swiss and international far right organizations. But we will come back to it.

The automatic di Pari.

Visit

We visit Otto R. in Central Switzerland. The man lives in an individual house with ocher walls, with a Bordeaux garage door. The entrance is at the back, on the garden side. Through a window ajar in the door, he asks what we want. At first, he denies being the president of the national party.

Our man lives in central Switzerland, so here is a snapshot drawn from an image bank in this pretty region: Lac Lungernsee.Image: Shutterstock

But when we talk to him about data leakage, by evoking for example the name of his web designer, he relaxes a little and eventually recognizes that he is indeed the president of this new political training. There follows a long conversation … through the small window. Otto R. is due to his address is not revealed. He lives with his mother, over the age of 80, whom he takes care of.

Otto R. says he does not like the term “neonazi”. He prefers, like many nationalist right-wing extremists, being qualified as “national-socialist”. The internal documents of the national party, as well as the past of Otto R., show that it would like a cultural separation of German -speaking Switzerland with French -speaking Switzerland. With this in mind, he had founded the Heimatbewegung movement a long time ago, whose central organ, Volksruf, allowed him to express his editorial verve.

How it started

As early as 2022, while the sinking of the PNS seemed inevitable, some dissatisfied members began to lay the foundations for a new political training. Internally, a keen debate opposed those who wanted to reveal the reference to National Socialism already in the name of the party.

In a working document, the current president of the party proposed several appellations in this direction: Popular Front, National Social Movement, or Union of the People. Otto R. also planned to take up the name of national action against the foreign grip of the people and the fatherland, a party founded in 1961, later became Swiss Democrats (DS).

Previously a member of the PNS and the Néonazi International Blood & Honor network, Otto R. pleaded in this document for a distance from the national conservatism of the UDC or DS, in favor of an alignment with original National Socialism. This 60 -year -old crane operator wanted the ideology to be expressed in the “in a disguised form” program. The ultimately retained name of national party was ultimately not very original.

The National Party logo is inspired by the MSI neofascist and the French National Front.Image: Mediapart

The logo selected hardly innovates, with a red flame and a Swiss cross in its center, it reminds a lot of the emblems of the Italian MSI, founded after the Second World War by faithful of the Social Republic of Mussolini, and that of the National Front in France.

In the photo of the Party Foundation, alongside President Otto R., a politician of the Swiss Federal Democratic Union appear, as well as Hansjörg F., nicknamed “Hase”, and member of the International Hammerskins Network.

Since the start, Otto R. has been the figurehead of the political movement. In recent times, he has mainly pointed out by readers of readers published in the press of Central Switzerland, but when reading his texts, nothing suggests his radical convictions. However, this was not always the case. In the 1990s, this building worker belonged to the Patriotic Front, an organization accused of attacks against homes for asylum applicants. He then received a suspended prison sentence.

Like many neonazis, members of the national party reject parliamentary democracy. Aware that their ideas have no chance of being accepted by public opinion or in the ballot boxes, they choose an existence on the fringes, punctuated by meetings between initiates.

Even more marginal than its predecessor, the PNS 2.0 evolves in total political insignificance. In Switzerland, surviving politically to the right of the UDC remains very difficult, even if some media persist in waving the specter of a return of “fascism”. The only far -right movement having a little dynamism is Junge Tat, whose young members no longer take old neonazis like Otto R. seriously. But even Junge Tat has no political power, and will probably never exercise it.

Translated from German by Joel Espi

Swissmint opened its online store this Tuesday morning to sell a special edition of the famous Vreneli. But the room is already not found.

Swissmint had announced for this Tuesday morning the sale of an exceptional Vreneli, struck on the occasion of the 100 years of this emblematic room. The official launch on the online store was scheduled at 9 a.m.