Virus lockdown could fuel radicalisation, Europol warns

Coronavirus lockdowns could radicalise more terror suspects, the EU’s police agency warned Tuesday (23 June), saying both right and leftwing violence were on the rise. The pandemic’s worldwide economic and social impacts could escalate existing discontents, Europol director Catherine De Bolle said as she unveiled the organisation’s latest terrorism trends report. “These developments have the potential to further fuel the radicalisation of some individuals, regardless of their ideological persuasion,” De Bolle said in the report. “Activists both on the extreme left and right and those involved in jihadist terrorism attempt to seize the opportunity the pandemic has created to further propagate their aims.”