How Does the Far Right on Telegram Instrumentalise Environmental Protests?

Although environmental concerns serve as the entry point, for most of these actors, environmental protection is not an end, but rather a tool for delegitimising the opposition, the government, civil society, and the West, as well as for mobilising citizens through emotional, apocalyptic, and often inflammatory rhetoric.

Such instrumentalisation has direct harmful consequences for environmental activists, as it contributes to their delegitimisation, increases pressure on them, and creates space for their portrayal as a security threat. At the same time, the analysis finds no evidence of organisational or ideological links between local environmental initiatives and far-right groups; instead, it points to an external instrumentalisation of legitimate civic discontent.