‘Are you reading from your manifesto now?’ asked the judge.
‘No,’ replied Breivik, and went on: ‘How many people feel the same in Norway, do you think? More and more cultural conservatives are realising that the democratic struggle achieves nothing. Then it is just a short step to taking up arms. When peaceful revolution is made impossible, then violent revolution is the only option.’
He read in a monotone, without any sense of involvement. If he was animated inside, it did not show on the surface. It was like his time in the Progress Party. Even when he was on the podium, he had failed to inspire, failed to generate any enthusiastic applause.There was a bitter tone to his voice.
‘People who call me wicked have misunderstood the difference between brutal and wicked. Brutality is not necessarily wicked. Brutality can have good intentions.’
People in the rows of seats sighed and shrugged. Some AUF members had started whispering together.
‘If we can force them to change direction by executing seventy people, then that is a contribution to preventing the loss of our ethnic group, our Christianity, our culture. It will also help to prevent a civil war that could result in the death of hundreds of thousands of Norwegians. It is better to commit minor barbarity than major barbarity.’
He took a breath and embarked on a discourse about what he termed the Balkanisation of Norway and the witch hunt against cultural conservatives.
‘Are the AUF and the Labour Party doing this because they are wicked, or because they are naive? And if they are only naive – shall we forgive them or punish them? The answer is that most AUF members have been indoctrinated and brainwashed. By their parents. By the school curriculum. By adults in the Labour Party. Still these were not innocent civilian children, but political activists. Many were in leadership positions. The AUF is very much like the Hitlerjugend. Utøya was a political indoctrination camp. It was—’
‘I must ask you to moderate your words out of consideration for the survivors and the bereaved,’ Arntzen said sharply.
‘The certainty of my imprisonment does not frighten me. I was born in a prison, I have lived my whole life in a prison in which there is no freedom of expression, where opposition is not allowed and I am expected to applaud the destruction of my people. This prison is called Norway. It doesn’t matter whether I am incarcerated in Skøyen or in Ila. It is just as pressing wherever you live, because in the end the whole country will be deconstructed into the multicultural hell we call Oslo.’
‘Are you near the end, Breivik?’ asked the judge. He had exceeded his limit of half an hour.
‘I am on page six of thirteen.’
‘You must start finishing off now,’ said Arntzen.
‘My whole defence hinges on being able to read the whole thing.’ He took a sip of water and went on reading in a monotone. ‘According to the Central Office of Statistics, immigrants will be in the majority in Oslo by 2040. And that does not take into account third-generation immigrants, adopted children, people who have no documents or who are here illegally. Forty-seven per cent of those born in the hospitals of Oslo are not ethnic Norwegians. The same is true of the majority of children starting school.’
The three male forensic psychiatrists sat looking at Breivik, while Synne Sørheim made copious notes on her laptop.
‘European leftists assert that Muslims are peaceful and against violence. This is lies and propaganda.’
‘Breivik, I must ask you to wind up,’ Arntzen said urgently.
‘It is not possible to abbreviate the framework of my defence,’ he replied, adding, ‘If I’m not allowed to set out the framework, there’s no point my saying anything at all.’
The judge was determined to keep a tight rein from the start. She could not ease off on day two.
‘There is a consensus between European elites and Muslims to implement the multicultural project in order to deconstruct Norwegian and European culture and thereby turn everything on its head. Good becomes evil and evil becomes good. In Oslo, aggressive cultures like Islam will increasingly predominate, spreading like cancer. Is this so hard to understand? Our ethnic group is the most precious and the most vulnerable, our Christianity and our freedom. Ultimately we will be left sitting there with our sushi and flatscreen TVs, but we will have lost the most precious—’
‘Breivik!’ said the judge. She pronounced his name abruptly, almost without vowels so it sounded like ‘Brvk!’
‘I have five pages left.’
‘This goes far beyond what was requested yesterday,’ said Arntzen, addressing Lippestad.
‘I understand the court, but request that he be allowed to go on,’ said Lippestad, but he also asked Breivik to cut down his text. He stressed that a limit of five days was set for his defence.
‘This was originally twenty pages but I managed to compress it into thirteen. There’s a lot of talk about these five days I’ve got. I never asked for five days, I only asked for an hour! That’s this hour I’ve got now. It’s critically important for me to explain all this,’ exclaimed Breivik.
‘Go on!’ said Arntzen.
‘Thank you!’ said Breivik.
‘Then we come to another European problem. Demands such as sharia law. Norway spends its oil money on social security benefits for immigrants. Saudi Arabia has spent one hundred billion dollars on Islamic centres in Europe and financed fifteen hundred mosques and two thousand schools…’
Public advocate Mette Yvonne Larsen, responsible for liaison between the courtroom in Oslo and the district courts, broke in and said that victims and relatives of victims in the regional courtrooms had taken offence at the fact that Breivik was allowed to go on for so long.
‘You have heard how the bereaved relatives are reacting. Will you show consideration for that?’ asked the judge.
‘I will,’ replied the accused.
‘Is it relevant to you?’
‘It is relevant to show consideration.’
‘In that case I ask you to do so and to conclude as quickly as possible.’
‘I have three pages left,’ said Breivik. ‘If I’m not allowed to read to the end, I shall not account for myself to the court at all!’
Then prosecutor Svein Holden spoke. ‘We consider it important that Breivik be allowed to continue.’
He went on.
‘Oslo is a city in ruins. I grew up in the West End, but I see that the city authorities are buying apartments, public property, for Muslims, who create ghettos. Many Muslims despise Norwegian culture, feminism, the sexual revolution, decadence. It starts with demands for special dispensations and ends with demands for self-rule. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are heroes acclaimed by the indigenous people of the United States – they fought against General Custer. Were they wicked or heroic? American history books describe them as heroes, not terrorists. Meanwhile, nationalists are called terrorists. Isn’t that hypocritical and highly racist?’
The judge regarded him intently.
‘Norwegians are the indigenous people of Norway! Norway supports those who champion the indigenous peoples of Bolivia and Tibet, but not of our own country. We refuse to accept being colonised. I understand that my info is difficult to understand, because the propaganda tells you the opposite. But soon everybody will realise. Mark Twain said that in a time of change, a patriot is seen as a failure. Once he has been proved right, everyone wants to be with him, because then it costs nothing to be a patriot. This trial is about finding out the truth. The documentation and examples I have presented here are true. So how can what I have done be illegal?’
The psychiatrist Synne Sørheim was chewing gum as she typed her notes. The three men sharing the table with her all had their chins propped on folded hands, observing what happened in front of them.