# Right-wing squatting

Squatting is the practice of occupying empty buildings. The occupied spaces are used for different purposes like communal living and organizing actions. Squatting is often practised by left-wing groups, but there are also cases of right-wing squatting. In these squats, the spaces are occupied by right-wing groups or organisations.
Right-wing squats seem to be inspired by left-wing squats in their formation, appearance and practice but differ from them in other aspects. The phenomenon of right-wing squatting is mostly prevalent in countries with big left wing squatting movements.

## Netherlands

In 2000 a building in Eindhoven was squatted by neo-Nazis from the right-wing organisation Voorpost. They initiated a squatted social centre, which was used as a place for organisation of the group. In 2008 a right-wing movement squatted a building in Monster near Den Haag in the wake of protests against a squatting ban.

## Italy

Italian right-wing groups have been trying to establish squatted right-wing social centres since the 1980s. Since 2003 CasaPound Italia has been upholding a right-wing squat in Rome. They want to spread their activities and squats all over Italy and name housing needs as their main reason for squatting.

## Spain

In 2014 the Movement ‘Hogar Social’ initiated a squatting in Madrid. Linking social issues with xenophobic ideas they named the housing shortage for ‘native families’ as their motivation for squatting. The campaign behind this was initiated by the neo-Nazi Republican Social Movement.

## France

In 2017 right-wing youth organisation 'Bastion Social' squatted in Lyon. They claimed that there would be too little housing for non-immigrants and emphasized the fear of 'colonisation' by mass-immigration.

## Germany

After the Fall of the Berlin Wall neo-Nazis became more visible again in Berlin. From December 1989 on new groups joined from the West and in January 1990 a new neo-Nazi Party 'Nationale Alternative' (NA) was founded. In the wake of GDR collapsing there was a power vacuum and many empty buildings at that time. Because of these exceptional conditions the Berlin districts Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg became places for many left-wing squats. In need of a place for organising the party-affairs, NA squatted a house in Lichtenberg, the district right next to Friedrichshain, in February 1990. Because the house they first occupied was not owned by the state they were offered alternatives. They chose Weitlingstraße 22 and founded ‘Bürgerinitiative Wohnraumsanierung e.V.’, making the squatting seem like a project for common good.
The occupied building served as a headquarter, a space for communal living, planning actions, partying, propaganda production, a meeting point for (international) neo-Nazi groups, a place to stay for leading figures in neo-Nazi parties and terrorist groups. To the media it was communicated that the goal was to realise communal living and include right-wing practices in everyday life. Activities from the squatters of Weitlingstraße 22 also extended the occupied space and influenced the neighbourhood. The group committed acts of violence against asylum homes and left-wing squats in the area. There were similarities to left-wing squatting. Having bars in front of the windows, political claims on banners visible on the outside of the building, wearing military uniforms and motorcycle helmets and threatening the political opponent were common both in Weitlingstraße 22 as well as in other left-wing squats in Berlin. Another similarity was a solidarity-centred practice of shared income and expenses in the household. In other areas the squatters differed significantly from their left-wing counterparts. The clothing style was cleaner and more disciplined, the facades of the house plainer. They emphasized traditional values like order and tidiness in their communal living, which can also be interpreted as a façade of discipline presented to the outside. Hierarchies, traditional gender roles and exclusive – racist and xenophobic - forms of equality were promoted.
In April 1990 the police carried out a raid in Weitlingstraße 22 and arrested the NA leaders. The squatting declined further after an Antifa-Demo against the squat in June 1990. In July 1990 the lease agreement was terminated. Disagreements between members of NA and Gesinnungsgemeinschaft der Neuen Front (GdNF) as well as the lack of NA's success in the elections lead to the dissolution of the squatting and the house being empty at the end of 1990. Today the conditions for right-wing squatting have changed. Police repression and the housing situation make the practice of squatting harder.