This weekend Europe’s eyes were on Denmark as it played host to the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual celebration of cheesy pop songs and international goodwill. (Conchita Wurst, a transgender woman with a beard, ended up winning.) Bizarrely enough, that same weekend Copenhagen decided to green-light the country’s first official Nazi demonstration since World War II. On May 9, about 40 members of far right organization Danish National Front set up shop outside Parliament sporting propaganda-filled banners and Danish flags.
One skinhead even brought his acoustic guitar along, but before he could strum a single chord counter-protesters rained on the Nazis’ parade with glass bottles. As the anti-fascists increased in numbers, riot police quickly formed a circle around the right-wing demonstrators. Around 3 PM, some 200 masked anti-fascists stormed the square, and Esben Kristensen, the leader of the Danish National Socialist Movement, pretty much had his ass handed to him before the police pulled out their truncheons and began forcing the demonstrators back.
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To save the right-wing activists from punishment, riot police escorted them to safety and sent them on their way. Of course this only meant the trouble scattered out into the streets of Copenhagen—while families and tourists stood by stunned and speechless, packs of masked anti-fascists ran around the city looking for Nazis to beat up.
By the end of the day, 13 anti-fascist rioters had been arrested for throwing bottles, and one of them will likely face prison time. Twenty-one right-wing radicals were later arrested for public disturbance while on a train leaving Copenhagen. Everyone should have just stayed home and watched Eurovision.
