I Survived Anders Breivik’s Terrorist Attack. But His Politics Are Still With Us.
This day in 2011, far-right terrorist Anders Breivik murdered 69 people at the Norwegian Labor Party’s youth camp on Utøya island. A survivor of the attack writes about how he escaped — and the danger that Breivik’s far-right politics still represent today.
Ali Esbati, now an MP for the Swedish Left Party, survived Anders Breivik’s terror attack on the island of Utøya on July 22, 2011. (Nikolaj Jonas Blegvad / Wikimedia Commons)
I step out to the water’s edge. The sparse vegetation opens onto a small beach of large, flat rocks. The sun is shining a little more generously. It’s almost like arriving at a destination you didn’t really know was there. A feeling of relief and calm spreads through my body.
To my right, a group of young people, sitting and standing. Unlike how I feel, they seem scared and tired.
The lights flashing from somewhere across the water are almost hypnotizing. Next to me, low-key conversations are going on. Some people are talking to each other; some are on the phone. Just waiting for rescue, for resolution.
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