The United States has designated four self-described anti-fascist networks in Germany, Italy and Greece as terrorist organisations, in a move that extends President Donald Trump’s domestic campaign against “antifa” into Europe.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that German-based Antifa Ost, Italy’s Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (FAI/FRI), and two Greek groups – Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defence – have been listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). Rubio said he also intends to add them to the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) with effect from 20 November.
In a formal statement, Rubio said the four entities are regarded by Washington as “violent Antifa groups” and described them as embracing revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian themes, which are used to justify attacks in both domestic and overseas contexts. He added that the designations implement Trump’s pledge to confront what the administration calls an international campaign of political violence linked to antifa-branded movements.
Under Executive Order 13224, SDGT status triggers an asset freeze under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from providing funds, goods or services to those designated. An FTO listing under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act carries additional immigration and criminal law consequences, including potential prosecution for material support and mandatory US visa ineligibilities.
Antifa Ost, sometimes referred to by German and Hungarian authorities as the “Hammerbande” or “Hammer Gang”, has been linked by investigators to a series of assaults on individuals it labelled neo-Nazis or part of the far-right scene in eastern Germany between 2018 and 2023. A 2024 report by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency described it as a violent network, and several members were arrested and later convicted over hammer attacks on far-right activists. The group is also accused of being behind coordinated assaults on targets in Budapest in February 2023.
According to US and Hungarian officials, those investigations prompted Hungary earlier this year to add Antifa Ost to its national list of terrorist organisations. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close political ally of Trump, has publicly framed that step as part of a wider effort to confront left-wing extremism.
In Greece, Armed Proletarian Justice claimed responsibility for a bomb planted outside the Athens riot police headquarters in December 2023; the device failed to detonate. A separate group using the name Revolutionary Class Self-Defence later said it carried out a blast at the labour ministry and an attack outside the offices of the national train operator. The State Department now treats both as part of what it calls a violent antifa milieu.
The Italian organisation listed by Washington, the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, has been on the radar of Italian security services for two decades. Authorities have linked FAI/FRI or its cells to letter-bomb campaigns against EU institutions and European corporate targets in the early 2000s, as well as the 2012 shooting of the chief executive of nuclear contractor Ansaldo Nucleare in Genoa, in which the victim was wounded in the legs in a so-called “kneecapping” attack.
While the Trump administration now groups these entities under an “antifa” label, research organisations note that antifa is not a single, centrally directed organisation but a diffuse anti-fascist current. The ACLED conflict data project describes antifa as an ideological designation adopted by varied actors rather than a coherent, global structure; specific militant groups that espouse anti-fascist positions are usually organised and named independently.
Thursday’s announcement builds on measures Trump introduced in the United States in September, when he signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to treat antifa as a domestic terrorist organisation and issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum on countering “domestic terrorism and organised political violence”. The White House+1 Those steps followed the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Texas and large protests against federal immigration enforcement in several major US cities, after which Trump and his Republican allies accused antifa supporters of fomenting political violence.
Civil liberties groups in the US, including the Brennan Center for Justice, have argued that the administration’s domestic orders risk conflating violent extremism with protest activity and could be used to target a broad spectrum of left-leaning organisations and activists. The State Department, by contrast, presents the new overseas designations as a standard counter-terrorism measure aimed at cutting off financing and travel for groups it says are responsible for bombings and organised assaults.
European governments have so far reacted cautiously. Germany’s foreign and interior ministries did not immediately comment on the US move, while Italy’s prime minister’s office told reporters it had no statement at this stage. A Greek official said Athens opposed “any terrorist act and terrorist organisation” and stressed that the government was working to reduce the threat of terrorism, without addressing the specific US listings.
The designations sit alongside, but separate from, the European Union’s own system for terrorism sanctions, under which the Council maintains an autonomous list of individuals and organisations subject to EU-wide asset freezes and police and judicial co-operation based on national or UN decisions. Washington has not indicated whether it will seek parallel action at EU level in relation to the four European groups.
With the SDGT listings already in force and FTO status due to follow later this month, US agencies will now be able to pursue any financial or logistical support for the named organisations that touches US jurisdiction. For European authorities, the move may prompt further exchanges with Washington on intelligence, prosecutions and the handling of far-left violent extremism, even as debates continue over how – and whether – to apply terrorism frameworks to actors operating under the broad “anti-fascist” banner.
