Domestic Extremism in Europe - Athena Institute

The number of victims (people murdered, injured or
taken hostage) claimed by domestic extremist attacks was
much higher both between 1990-1995 and 1996-2000 than
between 2000-2005. There has been an increase in the
number of people falling victims to extremist violence
between 2006 and 2010 but those numbers stay far below
the numbers our Institute found in the 1990s. It is also
worth noting that these trends are true for both Western
and Eastern Europe.
The data the Institute amassed for the ‘Domestic Extrem-
ist Groups – Europe’ project show that, although there
has been a definite increase in the number of new extrem-
ist groups since 2008, most extremist groups had been
established and active before that time. It also has to be
noted that the increase in the number of victims between
2005 and 2010 is mostly due to an increase in Eastern
Europe, whilst their number was still decreasing in
Western-Europe. 5
“For the most part the actions of domestic extremists
pose a threat to public order, but not to national security.
They are normally investigated by the police, not the Se-
curity Service.“
Security Service, MI5, Great Britain
5 Detailed victim numbers are portrayed here:
www.athenainstitute.eu/en/key_trends_an_observations#!prettyPhoto/2/
Domestic Extremism in Europe - Threat Landscape 33