Minorities under Attack. Othering and Right-Wing Extremism in Southeast European Societies

The anthology Minorities under Attack. Othering and Right-Wing Extremism in Southeast European Societies is an impressive collection of scholarly works that conducts a thorough analysis of the status of minorities in the region in changing political landscapes. During a time in which right-wing extremism and nationalism have once again gained salience in our political, economic, and sociocultural relations, works such as this anthology remind us that now is the time more than ever to draw attention to the impacts of these broader trends on the framing of identity as well as on markers of belonging and exclusion.

This volume makes a sophisticated and balanced contribution by discussing the above-mentioned themes in a way that is heterogeneous, multidisciplinary, and pluralistic, despite focusing on a particular geographical unit as its main case study. It is precisely its focus on southeastern Europe that highlights the ways in which historically marginalized societies, informed by specific sociocultural and institutional experiences and historical legacies, see themselves in a way that produces a form of ‘self-mirrored othering’ (11). Additionally, the strength of this volume is in its ability to convey the diversity of experiences and differing notions of othering present throughout the region. At the same time, the authors ground the larger significance of othering and experiences within the broader debates on ethnocentrism and homophobia against a backdrop of rising right-wing movements.

In terms of organizational structure and methodological approach, the book comprises thirteen empirical case studies that explore instances of othering across the different countries of southeastern Europe. As highlighted by the volume’s editors, taken together, the articles provide a multilayered perspective utilizing a broad scope of academic schools of thought, including historiographic perspectives, memory studies, post-structuralist discourse analysis, network and social movements studies, societal comparison, and anthropology. Some of the authors have also contributed to intersectional feminist and queer research. For consistency, the editors have chosen to conceptualize right-wing extremism in a way that allows for a more comprehensive study of the phenomenon across the different national cases. Therefore, the subsequent chapters fall into one of the two of Richard Stöss’s analytical frameworks: right-wing attitudes (authoritarianism, chauvinism, racism, pro-fascism) or right-wing extremist behaviours (voting habits, membership in organizations, hate crimes, and demonstrations).

Johannes Gold opens the volume with a quantitative analysis measuring interethnic relations between Albanians and Serbs during the first six years of Kosovo’s postindependence period (2008-2014). By asking how Albanians and Serbs get along in a post-conflict society, Gold sheds light on how ethnicity is enacted to produce a sense of persisting otherness, long after the end of violent conflict. Gold conducts an ethnographical overview by focusing on the Serb community in various Kosovar municipalities, using a range of indicators such as soft to hard incidences of interethnic contact (in form of protest, vandalism, attacks on property or physical violence) and resettlement opportunities for Serbian populations. He discovers that the structure and nature of interethnic relations in the newly independent state are primarily dictated by a visible Albanian–Serbian divide.

Zhidas Daskalovski’s chapter, ‘Skopje as an Ethnocentric Nation-Building Project’, situates the meaning of the recent reconstruction of the Skopje city centre within the larger historical context of Macedonia’s ethnocentricity and exclusion of national minorities. In an attempt to explore the government-led efforts to reconstruct the capital, Daskalovski focuses on the project ‘Skopje 2014’ and the ways in which it has evoked ethnocentric aspects that have direct, long-term repercussions for Macedonia’s future as a multiethnic state. The project has perpetuated an exclusion of ethnic minorities living within the state (e.g. Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Serbs, Roma, and Bosniaks) by projecting a dominant Macedonian identity. Daskalovski reminds readers to utilize a critical lens when thinking about the project: the ways in which it has emerged as a tool used by the government to participate in the making of identity in urban space. ‘Skopje 2014’, therefore, mainly articulates the interests of ethnic Macedonians at the expense of other ethnic groups in the country. Even more significantly, it further distances the country from any form of liberal nation building or multiculturalism in the future.

Claudia Lichnofsky continues on this theme of identity formation processes and how they are constructed to exclude particular minorities. In her chapter, she focuses on the exclusion of the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian people in Kosovo. What is unique about her analysis is that she simultaneously asks how these minorities are excluded during settings of conflict and post-conflict. Her contribution is an analysis of these groups against the larger backdrop of conflictual relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo.

The second part of the collection, with chapters by Jelena Tunić and Željana Kisić, Dragan Šljivić and Martin Mlinarić, as well as Sanja Đurin, focus on how the (re-)creation of national discourse through the making of ideology and remembrance-inspired movements can be crucial sources of exclusion for minorities. Tunić and Kisić analyze how the Croatian nationalist salute ‘Za dom – spremni’ (‘For the homeland – ready!’) used by Croatia’s Ustasha regime in the Second World War had been recreated and adopted as an expression of patriotism as well as an affirmative Croat identity during the 1990s conflicts. Šljivić and Mlinarić compare how two prominent Christian movements, Dveri (‘Doorways’ – Serbia) and U ime obitelji (‘In the Name of the Family’ – Croatia) have othered homosexuals as a threat to what traditionally constitutes the ‘normal’ family. The authors remind us that this process of othering isolates sexual minorities and makes them more vulnerable to be targeted as scapegoats in times of crisis. Đurin builds further on this argument by examining how Croatian national discourse during the 1990s, more generally, condemned homosexuality and proliferated a homophobia rhetoric in schools. Đurin makes a strong argument for the impacts of the politics of sexuality of the 1990s on laying the foundation for the present-day conservative and homophobic atmosphere in Croatia.

The remaining chapters of the collection all draw focus to the more structural factors that contribute to the processes of othering and exclusion, most especially the rise of right-wing parties. Sebastian Goll writes on the rise of right-wing attitudes in Romania, showing how organizational structures and strategies employed by particular extremist organizations of the fascist and socialist times have not only fuelled a strong ideology but have also translated ideology into behaviour, mobilizing strong bases of popular support. Philipp Karl makes a similar argument in his analysis on the successes of the right-wing party Jobbik in Hungary, attributing its rise as a political actor to its ability to create an online presence and utilize its subcultural networks on the Internet and social media outlets. The power and influence of party structures are also in play in Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, as the authors Maik Fielitz, Antony Todorov, and Đorđe Tomić remind us. While the failures of neoliberal economic reforms to deliver contributed to the rise in prominence of the radical right in Serbia as a political contender, the rise of Greece’s Chrysí Avgí (‘Golden Dawn’) party cannot only be attributed to economic distress but is rather a story of institutional outcomes and the party’s active resource mobilization. Lastly, Antony Todorov’s discussion of the common ideological ground shared by Bulgaria’s right-wing parties centered primarily on hostility towards minorities who ‘threaten the unity of the nation’ complements Henry Ludwig’s examination of the right-wing opposition against LGBT issues conveyed through mass media in Albania.