The transnational far right has exploded in fury, making calls for the ethnic cleansing of all non-white people from Western countries (“remigration”), shooting down migrants, and forming militias after as many as 60,000 migrants from Morocco entered into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on July 31. From the Trump administration to the white nationalist Identitarian movement and neo-Nazi Active Clubs, the broader authoritarian right-wing all appear to be on the same page: stoking hatred against migrants by promoting the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely purports that white people in Western countries are being intentionally “replaced” by non-white people Online hate-mongering by political figures and extremist groups alike has inevitably resulted in a series of hateful demonstrations in Ceuta by Spanish neo-Nazis and Identitarians from across Europe. These hateful calls come off the cusp of migrants, of which at least 72 have died, entering the small Spanish enclave on the northern border of Morocco. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the incident as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.” By August 1, Spanish authorities claimed that a vast majority of migrants who crossed over the previous day voluntarily returned to Morocco, with hundreds more returning each hour since there was no migration route to mainland Spain or the European Union from Ceuta. However, these facts bore no significance to hate-mongers transnationally, who have misconstrued the entire incident in a worrying flurry of hateful and violent rhetoric – even leading to some real-world demonstrations.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, calls for the “mass remigration” of all foreigners from Western countries. (Source: X).
Political Figures and In America and Transnationally Peddle “Great Replacement” And Violent Rhetoric
Over the weekend, the Trump administration and its allies took to X with egregious calls for continental ethnic cleansing. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which authored Trump’s Christian Nationalist Project 2025 agenda, demanded “the remigration of tens of millions of foreigners” to secure “the survival of Western civilization.” Remigration is a term popularized by the European white nationalist Identitarian movement (Roberts has met with prominent Identitarians such as Eva Vlaardingerbroek) calling for the ethnic cleansing of all non-white people from Western countries, as a response to beliefs in the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. Stephen Miller claimed the incident represented what he thinks Democrats want for America, which is to “see your home trampled and stolen by invaders.” Vice President JD Vance said Spain was suffering “the consequences of mass migration and the radical left-wing globalist policies that have enabled the Invasion of the West.” Political figures often use the term “invasion” to describe their beliefs in an ongoing “Great Replacement” of white people. Elon Musk shared a violent clip of the film World War Z depicting a zombie hoard climbing over a wall while people shoot at them. Musk captioned the video “Wow, the situation in Spain looks crazy.” The post garnered over 25 million views and 446,000 likes.
Elon Musk shares a clip from the film World War Z, during which zombies are climbing up a wall and being shot at by military. Musk likened zombies to the migrants entering Ceuta. The post garnered over 25 million views and 446,000 likes. (Source: X).
Far-right political figures transnationally similarly spread war-like language and shared posts inspired by the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. Rupert Lowe, leader of Restore Britain, a party whose members openly endorse remigration, said “we are being invaded, and Europe needs to wake up before it’s too late.” Polish Member of European Parliament (MEP) Dominik Tarczyński, who has previously spread anti-Muslim hatred such as saying “not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim,” posted a video with the caption “This is war,” seemingly advocating for a military response to the border crossings. Argentine President Javier Milei shared a video allegedly showing Spanish locals in Ceuta chasing down some of the Moroccans who crossed the border, cheering them on by saying “When people wake up… the end of socialism is near… KEEP GOING SPAIN.”
Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński shares a clip of migrants in Ceuta with the caption “This is war!” (Source: X).
Online Extremists Promote Military Action and Fascism
Extremists transnationally responded to the news in Ceuta by demanding for violent military intervention against those who have crossed the border. In the United States, Republican influencer Matt Van Swol made a post saying that the United States should “open fire on the invaders” should such a situation occur in the country. Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called to “launch the Crusades 2.0” in Spain, and neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes said, “I wish America would just go in with F-35s and just drop bombs on those people.” A video game livestreamer, Zachariah Hoyt (“Asmongold”), who previously declared his goal “is to radicalize people as much as possible” through extreme rhetoric on immigration, called for all migrants crossing the border to be shot, saying “I’d shoot whoever… if it’s kids, women, men, whoever.” Christian Nationalist pastor and online influencer Joel Webbon (read GPAHE’s profile of Webbon here) claimed Israel was responsible for the migrants crossing the border, saying “Islam is the broom of Judaism,” suggesting that Jews use Muslims as a prop to destabilize Western countries, and that “we must despise both [religions].” Anti-Muslim influencer and former Trump confidante Laura Loomer specifically targeted “hordes of Muslims” as responsible “for the chaos they bring the world.” Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson released a video headlined “The Great Replacement is no longer a theory.”
Influencer Matt Van Swol calls for the United States to kill migrants (“open fire on the invaders”) if the country were to face a large-scale border crossing. The vast majority of those who crossed into Ceuta voluntarily returned to Morocco without military intervention. (Source: X).
MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec made several posts promoting former Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco as a “solution” to migration, including a clip on the Real America’s Voice podcast in which he says, “It is an objective fact that Francisco Franco defended Spain from some of the most horrific and brutal and savage demonic creatures that have ever existed.” Franco was infamous for acts of political violence during his dictatorship, which included collective punishment, mass arrests, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings against political opponents. Franco also airlifted troops from Morocco across the mainland to aid in his assault on Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. Posobiec was joined by The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, American anti-Muslim influencer and Remigration Summit speaker Joey Mannarino, and far-right outlet The Blaze contributor Auron MacIntyre in suggesting Franco and his fascist dictatorship would deter migration. Commenters on Posobiec’s Telegram channel responded in-kind to his pro-Franco posts by advocating for violence, saying “the citizens should get armed and begin the killing,” and “start shooting the illegal aliens.”
Followers of Jack Posobiec’s Telegram channel responded to his praise of Francoist Spain with calls for violence against migrants, such as “the citizens should get armed and begin the killing,” and “start shooting the illegal aliens.” (Source: Telegram).
The New Jersey Proud Boys made several posts responding to the situation in Ceuta, saying “Spain is being invaded from all directions,” followed by images and videos of machine gun fire, suggesting, like many others, that lethal force should be used against them. Similarly, commenters in the Telegram channel of the white supremacist White Lives Matter movement suggested killing migrants by “throw[ing] all of this (sic) useless waste into the water,” after which “sharks will eat them.”
The New Jersey Proud Boys made multiple posts on its Telegram channel depicting machine gun fire at people on a beach, as a comparison to the migrant crossings in Ceuta. (Source: Telegram).
Screenshots captured on the Telegram channels of the New Jersey Proud Boys and White Lives Matter (WLM) show a support for violence against migrants. (Source: Telegram).
British self-described Identitarian influencer “Angloid,” who was a speaker at the 2026 Identitarian Remigration Summit in Porto, made a post saying “the army should be deployed” and “invaders should be drove (sic) out by any means necessary.” Lucy White, a Restore Britain member, and speaker at the Remigration Summit this year, said “It’s either remigration or war” and advocated for the remigration of all “illegal and the legal third worlders.” “Third worlders” is a common slur used against non-white people. Paul Golding, leader of the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim party Britain First, shared a clip depicting D-Day during World War II, declaring that using machine guns firing at migrants will be the “new Britain First anti-illegal migrant policy.” Ulster Youth Club, based in Ireland and part of the transnational neo-Nazi Active Club network, whose members conduct combat training in anticipation of a “race war,” made a post suggesting the migrants who crossed into Ceuta “will arrive upon [Ireland’s] shores,” and encouraged readers to join their chapter. Youth Clubs limit their membership to teenagers aged 15 to 18, meaning they’re recruiting minors to potentially fight migrants.
Ulster Youth Club uses the Ceuta migrant crossings as justification to recruit new members to face “this barbaric hoard [that] will arrive upon our islands shores.” (Source: Telegram).
Across the rest of Europe, Identitarian influencers such as de-facto leader of the movement and former neo-Nazi Martin Sellner weighed in with “Great Replacement” rhetoric and calls for violence. Sellner, co-founder of the remigration initiative “Save Europe Act,” claimed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez “has no legitimacy” to rule, and encouraged “civil disobedience.” The Save Europe Act X account posted a video featuring co-founder Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch Identitarian, saying there is an “orchestrated invasion going on” in Ceuta to which the “solution” is remigration. The video was reposted by Elon Musk. Dries Van Langenhove, a former member of the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), and whom a judge described as “revell[ing] in Nazi ideas that cause much suffering,” said “If an army cannot be used to repel hostile invaders, or to drive them out when they are causing havoc, why have an army at all? Maybe it’s better to allow citizens to form militias like in the old days.”
Belgian Identitarian Dries Van Langenhove calls for the creation of citizen militias to deal with migrants, who he calls “hostile invaders.” (Source: X).
Extremists Mobilize in Ceuta
A plethora of online chatter inevitably led to real-world mobilization in Ceuta. On July 31, the neo-Nazi group Núcleo Nacional (National Core) and the white nationalist party Democracia Nacional (National Democracy) joined forces with the anti-immigrant party La Falange, gathering in front of the Moroccan embassy in Madrid. They unfurled a banner reading “Remigration.” Protesters chanted “this is not immigration, it’s an invasion” and “Spain is Christian, not Muslim.”
Isabel Medina Peralta, a member of Núcleo Nacional, gave a speech and ended it with a Roman salute. She told the crowd that Spanish courts had just upheld her one-year prison sentence for inciting violence against Moroccan migrants in 2021, a hate crime charge. On August 2, another protest was held in the same spot, with more than one thousand people attending.
Isabel Medina Peralta, a member of Núcleo Nacional, doing the Roman salute during a protest in front of the Moroccan embassy in Madrid. (Source: X).
The following days, Núcleo Nacional and other far-right and international Identitarian activists travelled to Ceuta, where a humanitarian crisis was still unfolding, with hundreds of young migrants sleeping in the streets and the death toll past 70, most having drowned while trying to reach Spanish soil. “Africa is not Europe. We need to stop ethnic replacement in Europe, and all of them [migrants who arrived in Spain] –every single one– need to go home,” said Martin Sellner, the de-facto leader of the Identitarian movement, speaking from the Spanish border. There, members of the European Identitarian movement displayed banners in English, calling for remigration.
Members of Identitarian groups such as Generation Identity, Save Europe Act, and Action Radar Europe unfurl a banner reading “Remigration” and “Europe is not Africa – Stop ethnic replacement.” (Source: X).
The political exploitation of the humanitarian crisis in Ceuta has backfired for both Núcleo Nacional and Alvise Pérez, leader of the Spanish anti-immigration party Se Acabó la Fiesta (The Party’s Over, SALF). On August 1, both had to leave the Ceuta after residents confronted them, accusing them of only showing up to spread hate.
