The extreme right thrives on people's existential fears. Times of crisis, such as ours marked by the invasion of migrants in Europe, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, favor them. When Facebook and Twitter started censoring them, they turned to Telegram - now there in channels with over a thousand people spreading their ideas. Although, according to experts, some of them were absorbed by the Serbian Progressive Party, the question is how many of them got out of control
The extreme right has experienced a transformation in the past fifteen years - from large street protests, through a period of pacification and retreat to social networks, to a reawakening and new forms of advertising. The corona virus pandemic and the war in Ukraine are events that trigger these groups to become more present in society and attract new members.
Professor of history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and researcher of right-wing organizations Dubravka Stojanović he tells the "Vremena" portal that everything that has been happening in recent years "is in their favor": "from the migrant crisis, through the pandemic, to the war in Ukraine".
He adds that they "draw all their strength from people's existential fears", and that this is fertile ground for them, which allows them to "abuse those fears with strong emotions".
That is why it is not surprising that the corona virus came as ordered for such organizations. The circulation of conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus flooded their pages from the very beginning, but it erupted with the acquisition of vaccines and the start of stories about covid passes.
Covid mobilization
The "anti-vaxxer" protests of August and September 2021 were also joined by members of extreme right-wing groups. Although they did not necessarily lead or organize them - they used them as a street platform to express their own dissatisfaction
With the obligatory icons, and under the leadership of the leader of the movement "I live for Serbia" by Dr. Jovana Stojković, around the monument to Stefan Nemanja, a Serbian circle danced. Members of Carostavnik were also recognized among those present.
Zoran Buljugić, one of the members of this organization - often a host at forums with German neo-Nazi partners, is also the president of the Expert Council of the "I Live for Serbia" movement. They participated in the April elections as part of the "Sovereignists" list, led by Saša Radulović.
As Bojan Mandić, a representative of "Serbian Action", emphasized at the promotion of the "Zentromag" magazine, they were also present at the July protests in 2020. Of course, while it's practically impossible to prove, this raises the age-old question: What was their role there? Did they come out spontaneously and use the protests for their own promotion, or did they participate in the provocations of the police, so that they would have a reason to react and break up the demonstrations.
Telegram
The new platform for spreading their ideas is definitely Telegram. The algorithms of Facebook and Twitter recognize their content as malicious and block their access to the networks, which they themselves call "censorship". On the other hand, there are no restrictions on Telegram.
Also, the websites of these organizations are deleted from the Internet every now and then because they are recognized as dangerous content, which is, for example, the case with the website of the National Serbian Front.
It is not known how many members the "Serbian Action" organization has, but that's why their Telegram channel has around 1.200 followers.
Previously, it was mostly written about conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic and, as they say, the "cleansing" of the city from LGBT people, but now topics related to the war in Ukraine prevail, as well as standard reminders of obscure historical figures. Also, messages and photos of the "Imperial Legion", a Russian extreme-nationalist volunteer unit fighting in the Donbass and cooperating with the Serbian Action, regularly appear. Due to its radical views, this unit is even targeted by the official Kremlin.
The Zentrope channel has around 1.300 followers, while Carostavnik has the fewest followers - just under five hundred.
Not all members of their Telegram channels are necessarily members of organizations, but it is problematic that there are so many people who at least partially sympathize with such extreme ideas. This only indicates that a part of Serbian society colored by pronounced nationalism relativizes these ideologies, considering them "Serbian" and not fascist as they actually are.
Sucking into SNS
A good part of extreme-right organizations and their leaders that were active in the middle of the first decade of the 1389s, when Serbia was still led by pro-democratic and Western-oriented forces, no longer exists in that form. This happened, for example, with Obraz and the old "XNUMX" movement, as well as all their later derivatives.
Social psychologist Jovan Byford believes that the reason for this is that many ideas such as "worshiping Russia, emphasizing the Kosovo problem, or looking at the wars of the 1990s - largely agree with the Progressives". "If it were to happen tomorrow that all those ideas go to the sidelines and progressive forces appear, new movements will appear," concludes Byford.
Dubravka Stojanović is of a similar opinion, adding that in her opinion "the Serbian Progressive Party sucked them in" and "keeps them under control", which proves their "deep connection, starting with the fact that now the pride can be held".
Serbian Action, Zentropa and Carostavnik do not officially support the current regime, which can be seen from their speeches, but they certainly prefer it over the "former" ones.
It will be held in September. Europride in Belgrade. How these organizations will be set up remains to be seen. It can also be expected that certain parts of the right-wing parliamentary opposition will loudly protest against the event, which could mobilize extreme right-wingers to join them on the streets.
This text was created as part of the project "Radical-right extremism" of the Balkan Investigative Reporters Network (BIRN).
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