Notorious racist Jared Taylor is inviting two special guests to his annual November gathering. One of Europe’s most notorious advocates for ethnic cleansing, Martin Sellner and violent neo-Nazi Guido Taietti are scheduled to speak at this year’s white supremacist American Renaissance (AmRen) Conference at the Montgomery Bell Inn and Conference Center near Nashville, Tennessee from November 15-17, 2024. Both speakers have clear criminal histories, including acts of moral turpitude which seemingly would put into question their eligibility to be admitted into the United States.
The AmRen conference they are planning to attend is a gathering of prominent eugenicists, white nationalists, and other extreme far-right figures that has been organized by Jared Taylor for the past 30 years. Taylor, who has fostered ties between disgraced eugenicists, members of the racist ‘Alt-Right,’ and extreme far-right leaders from Europe, is an influential figure in the far-right scene in the United States and abroad and appeared as one of the most influential white nationalist individuals in the transnational far-right network in a recent report published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE).
Sellner, arguably the most prominent leader within the European Identitarian movement, will be traveling to the U.S. to deliver a lecture titled “Remigration — A Hope for Europe,” expounding on the theory that involves mass deportation of migrants and ethnic minorities back to their supposed “home countries.” Remigration has long been purported by Identitarians and their allies, even political parties like Alternative Für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD), which is under surveillance by the German authorities, as a “solution” to the apparent “Great Replacement” of white people in European countries. The “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory alleges a conspiracy to “replace” the “native” European population of Western countries with non-white migrants. Believers in the “Great Replacement” have engaged in serious and targeted mass violence. American Renaissance is no stranger to the idea of “remigration,” as it recently celebrated the mainstreaming of the term, calling it a “necessary” policy “if the West is to be saved.”
Sellner’s presence at the conference is concerning for a plethora of reasons. He once belonged to a neo-Nazi group called “Stolz und Frei” (Proud and Free), and was mentored by Gottfried Küssel, who was imprisoned twice in Austria for “Nazi revivalism.” In 2006, Sellner admitted to sticking a swastika poster on a synagogue in Baden bei Wien, Austria, and was mandated to community service as penalty.
His rise to fame came during his time as the de-facto leader and founder of Identitäre Bewegung Österreich (Identitarian Movement Austria, IBÖ), part of the transnational white nationalist movement Generation Identity (GI), until he announced his “retirement” from IB in February 2023, although he is still active on the scene and described as a spokesperson. (Sellner claimed that he would concentrate on the “information war” instead).
He is a relentless propagator of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and uses this racist framework as the basis for his activism. Consistent with the conspiracy theory, Sellner and GI focus primarily on the baseless notion of “Islamization,” the idea that Muslims are taking over the culture of traditionally “white” countries, and purports that all non-white and non-Christian citizens, migrants, or residents should be remigrated.
In 2017, Sellner fired two shots at an alleged attacker at a metro station in Vienna, apparently acting in “self-defense.” He was subsequently banned from possessing weapons in Austria. Sellner most infamously received a nearly $1,700 donation from the Christchurch mass murderer in 2018. The killer also donated money to two other GI branches in France. Sellner and the shooter were reported to have exchanged emails, and even invited each other to visit their home countries. Generation Identity symbols have been banned in Austria.
Additionally, Sellner has been blacklisted or had his accounts closed by 87 financial institutions in multiple countries. He and Generation Identity have been described as “dangerous” and “deeply racist” by intelligence officials and remain under surveillance.
Another one of AmRen’s invitees is Guido Taietti, a violent neo-Nazi and a high-ranking member of the Italian neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ+ social movement CasaPound (CP). was sentenced in 2019 to over seven years in prison for a brutal attack on a man alongside his fellow party members.
Taietti will be delivering a talk called “Identitarianism: Errors and Lessons from Europe,” drawing from the same ideology Sellner purports and showcasing neo-Nazi support for Identitarianism and its ultimate goal of Europe’s ethnic cleansing. CasaPound self-identifies as a “third millennium fascist” populist group, or a modern approach to Italy’s history with fascism. CasaPound has also maintained close relationships with other neo-Nazi groups. In the early 2010s, CasaPound forged an alliance with Golden Dawn, the former Greek neo-Nazi party, whose leaders were found guilty of operating as a criminal organization under the guise of a political party by the Greek courts, including organizing heinous acts of violence.
Taietti describes himself as a “militant” for the “Italian radical right,” who has been part of CasaPound since the early 2010s and now serves as the Cultural Director in northern Italy. Taietti has been convicted of acts of extreme violence, and In 2019 was sentenced to seven years and two months in prison, reduced to two years and six months on appeal, for a severe assault against Emilio Visigalli, who was beaten with a bar and kicked multiple times in the head during a 2015 attack against anti-fascist activists in Cremona.
Visigalli suffered serious head trauma, multiple fractures, and bilateral lung contusions. Taietti was ordered to pay 30,000 Euros for his actions. Other members of CasaPound have been involved in outright hate and acts of violence, including a gang rape, for which two CasaPound members were convicted and sentenced to prison in 2019, leading anti-Roma mobs in 2021, and a brutal assault on Moroccans in 2022.
Whether the two will attend the AmRen conference remains to be seen. Sellner had his visa waiver permit revoked for entry into the United States in 2019 following an investigation into his connections with the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter who murdered more than 50 people. Sellner will be delivering a lecture about “remigration,” a policy proposal to ethnically cleanse Europe of anyone with a non-European heritage.
In 2018, Sellner and his American wife, Brittany Pettibone, were banned from visiting the UK on the grounds that their presence in the country was not conducive to the public good. In 2019, while Sellner was being investigated for his ties to the Christchurch shooter, Sellner was permanently excluded from the UK on security grounds and had his ESTA (electronic system for travel authorization) permit, a visa waiver program allowing people from certain countries to enter the U.S. for under three months without needing a visa, revoked for a visit to the U.S. to marry Pettibone. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of the conditions for eligibility to submit an application is if the individual does “not pose a threat to the welfare, health, safety, or security of the United States.”
Germany also banned Sellner briefly. Following a secret meeting in November 2023 held by Sellner with members of the far-right party Alternative Für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) and its youth chapter, Junge Alternative (Young Alternative, JA) discussing remigration, German authorities enacted an entry ban in March 2024 against Sellner, and in May 2024 the AfD was found by German administrative courts to “[pursue] goals that run against the human dignity of certain groups and against democracy.” The meeting itself served as a catalyst for mass protests across Germany, in which over a million people participated. The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution ruled the AfD’s Saxony state chapter as “certainly right-wing extremist.” The entirety of Junge Alternative is classified as a right-wing extremist group by German authorities.
Sellner successfully challenged the ban, meaning he is once again eligible to enter Germany. In March 2024, Sellner attended an Identitarian protest, which was an “unreported assembly,” at the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), where he stood on the balcony of the building. Sellner and his colleagues were escorted from the balcony after the State Office for State Protection and Counter-Extremism (LSE) dissolved the demonstration.
He’s gotten into trouble in Switzerland as well, and was arrested by Swiss police in March 2024, preventing him from delivering a speech to the neo-Nazi group Junge Tat (Youth Action) in Aargau, Switzerland, “to ensure public safety and prevent confrontations with people from the opposing side.” According to Sellner, he was handed a two-month travel ban from the region. In the months following, members of Junge Tat went on to form “Vision Remigration,” which is a project aimed at making “remigration” a mainstream policy proposal in Switzerland.
In August, police in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany shut down a public reading by Sellner, as he was banned from entering the municipality of Neulingen on the grounds that he would “commit or contribute to the commission of a crime.” Earlier this month, the Keystone-SDA news agency in Zurich, Switzerland, applied for an entry ban for Sellner after Junge Tat announced an event with Sellner to be held on October 19.
Additionally, Sellner has been blacklisted or had his accounts closed by 87 financial institutions in multiple countries. He and Generation Identity have been described as “dangerous” and “deeply racist” by intelligence officials and remain under surveillance.
For his part, AmRen founder Taylor is a long-time activist in the white supremacist movement and founder of AmRen’s parent organization, the New Century Foundation. He has also held positions on the advisory board of the white nationalist publication The Occidental Quarterly and was a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). He, along with longtime AmRen member Sam Dickson, the Ku Klux Klan lawyer, have been speakers at every AmRen conference since 1994. While in the early years, AmRen primarily hosted disgraced eugenicists studying “race science,” the event increasingly focused on white nationalist movement in the United States and abroad. Prominent speakers at AmRen conferences from Europe have included former Belgian MP and Schild & Vrienden (Shield and Friends, S&V) leader Dries Van Langenhove, former Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (Estonian Conservative People’s Party, EKRE) MP Ruuben Kaalep, former Front National (FN) leader Bruno Gollnisch, Dutch MPs Filip Dewinter and Anke Van dermeersch of the Flemish separatist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest, VB), and former British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin, now the vice-president of the pro-Kremlin fascist electoral coalition Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF).
Over the years, Taylor has also formed ties with the international far-right and Identitarian movements of white nationalists. Previous speakers at AmRen conferences from this milieu include Irish white nationalist Keith Woods, Swedish Red Ice director Henrik Palmgren, French Institut Iliade founder Jean-Yves Le Gallou, Swedish white nationalist social media personality Marcus “Golden One” Follin, Martin Lichtmesz, member of the German far-right think tank Institut für Staatspolitik (Institute for State Policy, IfS) and magazine Sezession, and French Identitarian theorist Guillaume Faye.
In the U.S., Taylor has been a speaker at white supremacist Nick Fuentes’ Third America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), and abroad, was present at the far-right Russian party Rodina’s (Motherland) International Russian Conservative Forum in 2015, several ‘alt-right’ Scandza Forum events in Norway and Sweden, and the “Prabudimas Conference” in Vilnius in February 2019.
At a transnational Identitarian conference organized by American white nationalist Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute (NPI) in Hungary in October 2014, Taylor had to take over the organization of the event after far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán issued travel bans to several of the participants, including Spencer and Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, referring to the gathering as a “racist conference.”
With the conference fast approaching and remigration becoming increasingly more mainstream amongst the American far right, including extremist and neo-Nazi organizations like the Proud Boys, it’s incredibly concerning that a violent neo-Nazi and Sellner, a so-called “former” neo-Nazi, one of the main propagators of violent language related to remigration, could be allowed into the country to further legitimize such hatred. The United States should take measures to ensure they are not allowed entry to the U.S. per stated government travel requirements and thus prevented from spreading their vile and anti-democratic messages on American soil, further inflaming already high emotions around the elections in an increasingly polarized country.
