Labelling Activists as Terrorists: The Securitisation of Peaceful Protest in Europe

This paper examines the securitisation of peaceful protest across Europe, where state authorities, prosecutors, courts, and media increasingly reframe activists as extremists or terrorists. This labelling legitimises exceptional measures: France’s attempted dissolution of Les Soulèvements de la Terre, Spain’s classification of Extinction Rebellion under “national terrorism,” German investigations of Letzte Generation under organised-crime and terrorism provisions, Dutch airport bans on climate activists, UK referrals of protesters under the Prevent programme, or Switzerland’s use of new police powers against climate groups. Beyond discursive stigma, counterterrorism frameworks enable intrusive practices such as biometric identification, predictive watchlists, and intelligence databases originally designed for violent threats. These measures blur the line between dissent and extremism, lowering thresholds for repression and reshaping activists into suspect communities. The analysis, drawing on European legal standards and targeted case studies, shows how this trend undermines rights to privacy, expression, and assembly protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter. By extending extraordinary state powers to protest, European governments risk normalising surveillance and delegitimising civic engagement. The paper calls for urgent safeguards to curb this trend and preserve the legitimacy of protest as a cornerstone of European democracy.