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Full of ship: Behind Generation Identity's high seas publicity stunt

Shivering in a raft in the dark, four young far-right activists kept watch on their target at the deep-water port in Catania, Sicily.

On board were Canadian alt-right blogger Lauren Southern and three members of G茅n茅ration Identitaire, or , an extremist youth group with chapters throughout Europe. They had staked out a Doctors Without Borders ship about to leave for a search-and-rescue mission off the coast of Libya, about 290 miles away.

Every day, close to 1,000 undocumented immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa set out to reach Europe by , often in small, overloaded boats or inflatable rafts. By May 12, the night of the Catania stakeout, more than 55,000 African immigrants had completed the perilous journey this year.

But at least 2,300 had after their boats sank or capsized, including many children.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Doctors Without Borders search the international waters between Libya and Italy for immigrants in distress. They have saved thousands yet drawn the anger of groups like Generation Identity, which accuses the NGOs of being in league with human traffickers and of fueling an 鈥渋nvasion鈥 of Europe by non-whites and Muslims. That鈥檚 because the NGOs transport Africans to European ports 鈥 where they enter the European refugee and immigration system 鈥 rather than transporting them back to Africa. (The European Union border agency Frontex ruled last year that Libya, a war-torn country ruled by rival militias, is too dangerous a place to return immigrants rescued at sea.)

For three hours, the Generation Identity members and Southern bobbed in the shadows. When the Doctors Without Borders ship disembarked, they positioned their raft directly in its path, livestreaming their actions on Periscope. Southern lit a rescue flare while the GI members unfurled a banner that read, 鈥淣O WAY for Human Trafficking.鈥

鈥淚f the politicians won鈥檛 stop the boats, we鈥檒l stop the boats,鈥 Southern declared.


Lauren Southern.

They didn鈥檛 stop the boat for long.

In short order, they were taken into custody by Italian coast guard officers, and the Doctors Without Borders ship was on its way.

Later that night, Southern appeared in a second Periscope livestream with Martin Sellner, then the 28-year-old leader of Generation Identity鈥檚 Austrian branch.

Sellner hinted in the livestream that Generation Identity鈥檚 short-lived 鈥渂lockade鈥 of the NGO ship was just the beginning of a new mission to 鈥渢rack down and stop [the]聽dirty work of these human trafficking ships.鈥

The following week, Generation Identity launched a fundraising campaign online for 鈥淒efend Europe,鈥 a 鈥渕ission鈥 to 鈥済ather a crew, equip a boat, and set sails on the Mediterranean to chase down the trafficking ships.鈥

鈥淓very week, every day, every hour, ships packed with illegal immigrants are flooding into European waters. An invasion is taking place,鈥 the Defend Europe statement declared. 鈥淭his massive immigration is changing the face of our continent. We are losing our safety and our way of life and there is a danger we Europeans will become a minority in our own European homelands. Our future is under attack.鈥

鈥淕odspeed, men.鈥

Sellner, who speaks fluent English, became the primary spokesperson for Defend Europe. In media interviews and fundraising videos, he pledged that Defend Europe would patrol the Central Mediterranean for immigrants to pick up and hand over to the Libyan Coast Guard. Once the boats were empty, he said, Defend Europe would sink them.

of Defend Europe by the alt-right Breitbart News Network caught the attention of three high-profile white nationalist leaders in the United States 鈥 David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Jared Taylor. All three encouraged their social media followers to find common cause with the European activists.

Martin Sellner.
Martin Sellner.

鈥淵oung Whites are waking up to their disenfranchisement across the White World,鈥 read an article on Spencer鈥檚 website, AltRight.com. 鈥淭he future belongs to us.鈥

Neo-Nazi websites also promoted Defend Europe. 鈥淭his is a great initiative,鈥 read a Daily Stormer post. 鈥淭hese parasites [African migrants] need to inculcated with a deep fear of making the trip across the Mediterranean. Right now, the Negroes believe that Europeans will come and pick them up to bring them to our countries 鈥 Godspeed, men. Your ancestors are proud.鈥

Within a month, Defend Europe raised more than $178,000, far exceeding its original crowdfunding goal of $58,000. On June 20, Sellner announced the group had chartered a 130-foot ship and hired 25 professional crew members. (Sellner did not respond to five interview requests for this article submitted via his personal website and social media accounts.)

Defend Europe : a 42-year-old former Finnish research vessel now registered in Mongolia, re-named the C-Star and festooned with a banner: 鈥淣o Way鈥擸ou Will Not Make Europe Home.鈥


Generation Identity at work.

Prior to Defend Europe, the greatest mainstream media attention Generation Identity came in April 2016, when Sellner and 30 to 40 other GI members at the University of Vienna (where Sellner studied philosophy and law) of Die Schutzbefohlenen[CQ] (鈥淭he Suppliants鈥), a play about the European refugee crisis by Nobel prize-winning writer Elfriede Jelinke. The cast members of the University of Vienna production were all refugees. The GI members sprayed fake blood on the stage, shouting that it symbolized 鈥渢he blood of Bataclan and Brussels,鈥 a reference to recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists.

The publicity generated by Defend Europe, though, elevated Sellner and Generation Identity to a new level. More than 50 large mainstream newspapers and television news outlets in Europe, Canada, and the United States about this controversial band of young European right-wing militants undertaking a vigilante mission on the high seas. Famed television host Piers Morgan interviewed Sellner live on 鈥淕ood Morning Britain.鈥

鈥淪ellner is very good on mainstream media, because he鈥檚 very competent at finding the space where he can be quite far to the right without going so far that he鈥檇 be shunned by the mainstream or middle right in the U.K. and other places in Europe,鈥 said Joe Mulhall, a senior researcher at the U.K-based anti-hate organization , which and other right-wing extremist groups.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt Sellner used Defend Europe very effectively to catapult his profile and that of Generation Identity more generally. We鈥檝e been looking at Identitarian movements for a decade, and we鈥檝e never seen anything like the kind of money he鈥檚 been able to raise, much of it from America, or the media attention he鈥檚 gained.鈥

This despite, Mulhall said, 鈥淒efend Europe becoming a farce once it was actually underway.

鈥淚t was a bit like a bad James Bond film.鈥

鈥淯ndisputed Success鈥

Defend Europe had trouble even getting its ship to the Central Mediterranean. First it was delayed for a full week by Sellner and company鈥檚 inability to produce routine crew paperwork needed to cross the Suez Canal. Then came a disastrous July 27 refueling stop in Famagusta, a city on the east coast of Cyprus. Port inspectors there found 20 Sri Lankan men on board whose . The inspectors said the men admitted they were not professional seamen. , the Sri Lankans told local human rights activists they had paid the equivalent of almost $12,000 each to be smuggled to Italy aboard the Defend Europe ship. Police arrested the ship鈥檚 owner, captain, senior officers and Defend Europe activist Alexander Schelyer on charges related to human trafficking. After making a court appearance a few days later, they were released for lack of evidence. Defend Europe claimed the Sri Lankan men were 鈥渁pprentice sailors鈥 rather than 鈥渇ull-fledged crew members鈥 and denied any knowledge of falsified documents. Fifteen of the 20 crew members were deported to Sri Lanka. The other five claimed asylum.

After leaving Famagusta August 1, the C-Star meandered off the coast of Libya for a week. During that time, Defend Europe posted a photo of Sellner yelling at an聽NGO ship through a megaphone. Then it posted a recording of Sellner on ship-to-ship radio: 鈥淲e will start our operation in front of the Libyan coast. We advise you to leave the SAR (Search and Rescue) area, because you are acting as a pool factor for human traffickers, making them billions. We will watch you. The days of your unwatched [garbled] are over.鈥

To which the captain sighed and said, 鈥淭hank you for your information.鈥

On August 7, Defend Europe tried to refuel at Zarzis, Tunisia, but was who blocked the refueling channel with small boats, waving signs that read, 鈥淣o racists.鈥

Four days later, the captain of the C-Star call due to 鈥渕achinery damage/failure.鈥 He reported the Defend Europe boat was dead in the water. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome dispatched the nearest ship to rescue the crew of the C-Star. That ship was the Sea-Eye, an NGO vessel that Defend Europe was following. As it approached, however, the C-Star captain retracted the distress call. Defend Europe soon posted online that 鈥渕inor technical difficulties鈥 caused the unnecessary SOS. Satellite tracking showed the C-Star was idle for the next 42 hours.

A week later, Defend Europe abruptly ended its 鈥渇irst mission鈥 after being denied entry by port authorities in Malta. After four weeks at sea, .

Sellner declared victory. 鈥淚t was a success. Undisputedly. Totally,鈥 he stated.

One month later, the C-Star was still anchored off the coast of Spain with no fuel or functioning navigation equipment. The nine professional seamen still on board, all Sri Lankans, from the Red Cross, which provided them with food, water and jackets. They said they had never been paid.

The Great Replacement

Just after sunrise in London on October 23, a group of Generation Identity members led by Sellner unfurled a huge black-and-gold banner with GI鈥檚 name and logo on the side of Westminster Bridge. It read, 鈥淒efend London. Stop Islamisation.鈥 The banner drop marked the official launch of the new United Kingdom chapter of Generation Identity.


Generation Identity spreads to the UK.

It鈥檇 been a heady summer and fall for Sellner. After calling the sudden end to Defend Europe, he鈥檇 traveled to America for the first time, and journeyed across Europe, setting up new Generation Identity chapters in Norway, Ireland, and Hungary. He鈥檇 gained more than 60,000 new social media followers. He鈥檇 met with former British National Party leader Nick Griffin. He鈥檇 been , the largest U.K. party in European Parliament (the rally was shut down at the last minute following a Hope Not Hate pressure campaign). And two days before the Westminster Bridge stunt, . He lectured on the looming dangers of what GI members call the Great Replacement, in which 鈥渨hite European identity and culture鈥 is being replaced by 鈥渋mmigration and Islamisation.鈥

鈥淏efore this summer, Sellner was a just a guy from Austria most people in the U.K. hadn鈥檛 heard of, even within the far-right. But now he鈥檚 a guest of honor at far-right gatherings all over the U.K.,鈥 said Mulhall. 鈥淓veryone wants to sit down with Sellner, and that鈥檚 a direct result of Defend Europe.鈥

Mulhall said it appears that Generation Identity is making its new United Kingdom branch the 鈥渕ain hub鈥 of the GI movement. 鈥淚ts website is very well done, and they鈥檙e translating all the content from other countries into English and gathering it there. They clearly have designs on America.鈥

GI this fall began offering wages to branch leaders, and continues to use the purported success of Defend Europe to raise money, with promises of a second mission in summer 2018.

鈥淪ome call us Hitler in disguise,鈥 Sellner said in a recent edition of Identity Quest, his regular Internet broadcast. Its animated opening sequence has a techno soundtrack and a lavender Lamborghini racing across a digital landscape. 鈥淏ut actually we don鈥檛 care what they call us. We know what we are standing for, which is our traditional Euro-cultural identity.鈥澛

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