The Identitarian Movement: subculture or nation-building?
On July, 26-th 2025 the Identitarian Movement of Austria (Identitäre Bewegung Österreich – IBÖ) organized its annual march in Vienna with about 600 young men and women – mostly from Austria, Germany and France – taking to the streets and calling for remigration. In line with the cultured Viennese tradition, it was a mostly peaceful event with only a few verbal exchanges with left-wing counter-protesters. As a matter of fact, over 50 people were arrested and released soon after, all of them being part of the antifa counter-demonstration.
The Identitarian Movement is arguably the most repressed group in modern Austria. Nevertheless, it has not been banned, and none of its members has been imprisoned to date. Exclusion from the political, economic and cultural life combined with public demonization of IBÖ seems to be the chosen strategy of the mainstream media and the political establishment in Vienna. What is the motivation and the guiding light of these 600 idealistic young Europeans who – being only a small portion of the 450 million citizens of the European Union – are trying to oppose the official EU migration policy?
At first glance, Identitarian organizations in Europe appear to be a metapolitical youth subculture that places strong emphasis on visualization and social media activity. This is misleading, first and foremost for the Identitarians themselves. The Identitarian movement in Europe is not simply about socializing and marching under the banner of remigration in the former imperial town, now adorned with rainbow flags. It represents much deeper undercurrents at work in Europe’s underground. This is a process of new European identity-building which could eventually lead to nation-building. Members of Identitarian organizations across Europe are part of something far larger than they likely realize. Indeed, Identitarians do not have the resources and capabilities to influence EU and member-states’ policy-making, however, they could form a new pan-European subculture and identity. This process, of course, comes at a price. Strong movements and ideologies are only established when people sacrifice their way of life, comfort, well-being and ultimately their life. If there are those within the Identitarian movement who are prepared to sacrifice everything for its cause, then the movement has a future; it could evolve into a genuinely pan-European, identity-based movement fueled by European nationalism.
Members of Identitarian organizations have been subject to repressions over the last years, especially in Germany and Austria. In several European countries there have already been convictions and imprisonment of people who are not necessarily members of Identitarian organizations but who share their views, especially concerning mass immigration into Europe. The latest example in Britain has been Lucy Connolly, a political prisoner who was sentenced in 2025 after calling for “mass deportation now” in an X post. Dries Van Langenhove, nationalist activist from Flanders, Belgium and former federal Member of Parliament was sentenced for sharing memes in a private chatgroup. Another striking example from Germany is Marla-Svenja Liebich who was sentenced in 2023 for “extreme right incitement to hatred, defamation, and insult”. After changing his gender entry from male to female based on Germany’s Self-Determination Act, Liebich is serving a sentence at Chemnitz women’s prison! The rise of convictions and repressions against activists opposing forced immigration is certainly an indication that the Identitarian cause is gaining traction in Europe. A key concept in this seemingly chaotic nation-building process is “remigration”.
One of the main slogans of the Vienna march was “Europa, Jugend, Reconquista” (Europe, Youth, Reconquest). In an enthusiastic account from the event, one of the participants praises the march in Vienna as “one of the pivotal events in the early stages of the struggle for the reconquest and rebirth of Europe” and “a continental call for return, pride and reconquest” (Sekulović, 2025). One of the businesses on the nationalist market, Arktos Media Ltd started selling a new T-shirt in 2025 with the playful caption “Remigration summer”. Step by step remigration has become a trendy right-wing buzzword which, understandably, has been strongly contested by left-wing propaganda.
To be continued.