Right, righter, rightmost

There is probably no government in this world that does not direct part of its energy, especially secret-security energy, to the area of ​​activity of the extreme right, all in an attempt to keep this political-anthropological spectrum under control. The motives may be different, but what has been said applies to authoritarian and totalitarian systems, and to democratic or banana-states, as well as to those already ruled by right-wingers. Namely, he can always go to the right, even from like-minded people who got hold of power.

The matter is logical, so to speak elementary: the ultra-right is a cauldron in which personalities with weaker access to education, lack of intellectual penetration, gullible, criminogenic and frustrated for various reasons are simmering. In the end, we get a melange of hatred, violence, lies, conspiracy theories and death. They should be feared, but on the other hand, they can be easily manipulated.

Let's start from the legitimate, that is, understandable reasons for state surveillance of extremism. Secret services infiltrate ultra-right groups to prevent violence or terrorist acts. Sometimes they even organize such groups in order to monitor and direct this field as best as possible, leaving less space for unguided "free shooters" who can be a danger to citizens as well as to political and social elites. We saw it in the movies.

BAD MOTIVES PREVAIL

However, less good motives are much more common. We have seen that too - there are tons of examples in history. Let's start from these areas of ours in the 1990s, when extreme nationalists represented a structure shaped by an ax under the control of the government, in order to achieve war goals and suppress critical voices. Sometimes they got out of control - you couldn't simply put the genie back in the bottle. Slobodan Milosevic himself probably regretted from time to time that he encouraged and enabled the Serbian Radical Party to hide in the political and criminal underground. A monster was created, which in the meantime grew so strong that it sometimes frayed its strings and reduced the possibility of evasion. And not to mention what has been done to Serbia in the past twelve years.

Historians will often emphasize the dishonorable role of Western countries and their elites in the birth of Nazism. Not all, but there were not a few who, even publicly, supported the ultra-right in order to stifle leftist movements and reduce the influence of the USSR. In Italy, the political and business elites wholeheartedly used fascist phalanxes to crush union revolts, but they screwed up, as they then seized power. It's always playing with fire.

There were similar cases in democratic countries after the Second World War - at least they tacitly supported right-wing groups that, as if protecting tradition and the state, dealt with left-wing, civil and human rights aspirations. Probably the vast majority of "Kuk Klan" members would not even in their most sublime moments of mental clarity realize that they were being used to preserve existing social relations and for the benefit of the rich, against whom they were fighting. There is no room here for comparisons with Trumpism, and a lot could be said.

AUTHORITICAL USE OF THE RIGHT HAND

However, authoritarian-right-wing authorities are more inclined to manipulate extreme nationalists and xenophobes. And it's easier for them, of course. They are parts of the same cake, they know each other more than well. It is customary to portray the extreme right as a "scarecrow" in order to legitimize the government as a moderate, more reasonable option. The entire political scene and public discourse are moving to the right, and then the left and liberal opposition also seems extreme. The fact that this leaves long-term disastrous consequences for society is of little interest to those who stand on top of the hill.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, extremes are an effective weapon for neutralizing the opposition, civil movements and critical voices. Let's say, they are ideal for suppressing protests and "witch hunts". Hoods and clubs. They don't cost much, it's easy to incite them, and later, if necessary, to arrest them, when they really cheat. In Serbia, they have another role - they beat institutions in order to portray civil protests as violent. Or, let's say, all these years with their symbols, they put themselves at the head of protests, adding a nationalist-extremist character to them. And then the "Ceda-Canak progressive citizens" would welcome it with a volley, to spit on the opposition. The other day, they tried to do something similar to students at a protest in front of the Constitutional Court.

Union workers also serve to mobilize public opinion against liberal values, freedom of choice, pluralism, to normalize the abnormal, to promote authoritarianism. In the modern world, they are the protectors of society and tradition from those who come from the east and from those who are not too opposed to migrants. They also have a strong anti-globalist role.

That's not the topic either, but we know that extreme right-wing parties are flourishing all around, just as we know that there are many who profit from closed state systems. We will not talk about which countries in the current war for the restructuring of global power the extremists are responsible for, nor whether those who were prone to fall are falling. Although there is an extremist international, it is certainly not coherent, for the simple reason that it is difficult to unite those who would kill each other like rabbits at the first corner.

TROJKA VACIĆ-DAVIDOVIĆ-BIHALI

Even within one nation/state, extreme nationalists unite with great difficulty. They are such people, difficult and nervous, easy to trigger, love steam. At the same time, they themselves often do not know who they work for and what they really want.

Only in this respect was the surprising news at the end of last year that three "leaders" of the extreme right, Miša Vacić, Pavle Bihali and Goran Davidović (plus a certain Robert Barać), united and announced the formation of the Party of Serbian Nationalists. They will fight for nothing but Serbian national interests and will gather all those who share their ideological views, they say. They also said that it will be a "legitimate political fighting formation", so it's a bit of a party, a bit of a paramilitary.

Nothing else, however, is surprising, especially not the moment when they appeared in the Belgrade Media Center and announced the party. Elem, in the context of major civil and student unrest in Serbia, which undoubtedly shook the power of Aleksandar Vučić, they remembered that it was the right time to wake up from their winter sleep in the middle of winter. Realistically speaking, they have never been more needed than now, so it is not excluded - let's make a joke - that they were brought to the Media Center by police for unification, especially since they were already known to the prosecution authorities. There is no information on what the "leaders" live on, but it seems that they do not lack anything.

Let's briefly recall that Bihali is the leader of the "Leviathan" organization, which initially appeared in public as a group of brutes fighting for the welfare of animals. It is one of the better jokes of our tragicomic political and social scene. They soon revealed themselves as a xenophobic group fighting against migrants and advocating for their "cleansing". Roma and LGBT people are also under attack. The incubator is a conspiracy theory. The Prosecutor's Office requested a ban on this organization due to the threat of human rights and paramilitary actions, but the proceedings are ongoing.

Davidović was already in prison for violence. Allegedly, he is an extremely good connoisseur of the character and works of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. For a while he grew his beard, so he looked like a Wahhabi, now, probably for the needs of the new party, he shaved. His organization "National Machine" has already been banned. And what can be said about Miša Vacić without crying or laughing with pain?

Even if by some miracle it has nothing to do with the announcement of the founding of this party, even if he fears that he might be threatened by the right, these ultra-right "leaders" suit Vučić perfectly. It cannot be said that the frontmen of numerous right-wing parties that have recently experienced a rise around the world are intellectually and politically towering figures, but compared to Bihali, Davidović and Vacić, they are academics and multiple Nobel Prize winners. We saw the scope of this "troika" from the results of the elections in which they previously participated ("Leviathan" and Miša Vacić).

The "Troika" has a few words of criticism against the authorities, it has to be a little bit, but it is clear who their main enemies are, against whom they will fight "with all available means". Surprisingly, these are the same people who are opponents and critics of Vučić's government.

photo: ana paunković / fonet

RIGHT INDICATOR

To what extent is a relevant right-wing political option than the progressive one possible in Serbia, that is, is it possible for the right to overtake Vučić? The answer, apparently, is negative. Having emerged from a fan-extremist circle, the president knows how to make it impossible, he knows where to drive stakes from that side, he knows how to use all the "underground" methods we talked about earlier.

A good part of his party shares the views of Bihali and his team. They even seem more moderate than, say, Vladimir Đukanović. One cannot imagine a public opinion that is more right-wing and nationalistic than this progressive one, which to a greater extent persecutes political criticism, opponents of authoritarianism and supporters of democratic, liberal, left-wing principles, independent media and civil organizations. And which is more against the "century-old enemies" of Serbia from the west.

Well, maybe they will lead a stronger anti-immigrant policy, although that is pointless because "non-Orthodox" refugees are certainly not interested in settling in Serbia. And neither do the Russians and Ukrainians who happened to be here by accident - they don't plan to spend the future in our nakedness. Perhaps the more extreme ones could wage a "war" against internal national minorities, but they do not deal with that at the moment, and why would they, when minority elites have shown their willingness to kneel before former radicals for personal benefits. They will also kneel before Vacić. Finally, remember that the citizens of a village in Vranje failed to differentiate between Miša Vacić and the Union of Vojvodina Hungarians. If any of that turns out to be politically viable and necessary for the preservation of power, there is no doubt that the government will take advantage of it.

Vacić will say at the conference in the Media Center that the field on the right has been "cleared", because "Zavetnici" came into power, and "Dveri" dematerialized. He did not mention the NDSS, probably because this party has moved closer to the center and uses gloves too much. Will the new party be the successor to "Zavetnik", playing tricks on the opposition and fooling the citizens? Hardly anyone thinks otherwise. In the end, only the politically ignorant and those on stronger drugs believed that "Zavetnici" was an opposition party. If they climb up, they will pass like "Doors", they will disappear. They might even be arrested before they drop the ball.

GROTESQUE PROJECT

Professor of the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad and former prominent politician Bojan Pajtić has no doubts. The Troika gathered under the auspices of the government and has clear functions.

"First, collecting the votes of disillusioned progressive voters who voted for radicals ten years ago. Second, that organization will serve Vučić to present himself to Western partners as more moderate than the "opposition" (even though it is clear to anyone informed that this is a party that is absolutely not the opposition). The third function would be to deal physically with 'traitors'. Therefore, this group, if it is formed, will serve to deceive voters and the international public, and harass 'elements' who criticize Vučić", says Pajtić for "Vreme".

This is what the new president of the Democratic Party, Srđan Milivojević, thinks. He says that the appearance of the "troika" and the announcement of the formation of a nationalist party is a consequence of the crisis in Vučić's government, which was seriously shaken by student and civil protests. Milivojević believes that their activation is actually proof that Vučić, at least to some extent, has lost confidence in his praetorian guard, that is, that he needs additional "guardians of order".

"The throne of the tyrant and usurper has been shaken most seriously so far. What hurt him personally the most was the realization that he was irrelevant. In addition to all that, the regime has a problem to fill its thug-mafia phalanxes. It is noticeable that many from the criminogenic milieu who are in the service of the government are deserting en masse, so that now prominent representatives of the advanced mafia organization and holders of executive power are coming to the forefront. The response of such a shaken government is the regime's additional mobilization of all resources of hatred and violence under the restraints of evil. These grotesque and caricature characters are programmed to say whatever the boss orders them to say, as well as what he thinks but is not allowed to say. They are ready to do absolutely anything, they have no moral inhibitions and will gladly use the complete arsenal of evil that the shaken tyrant puts at their disposal", says Milivojević.

He also says that this whole "project" is caricatured and grotesque in view of the "selection of personnel".

"Names that are mentioned as leaders of this project, among them the conductor from the frescoed train that headed for Kosovska Mitrovica but deserted already in Topcider, as well as those who expressed patriotic fervor through close ties with Albanian drug clans and worship of the Nazi cult and of the fascist symbols under which Pavelić committed genocide against the Serbs, clearly says that this project will survive only as long as it is well-oiled on the boss's budget and cauldron services", says Milivojević in an interview with "Vreme".

EXTREME POSITION AUTHORIZATION

Political scientist Milorad Đurić says that the announcement of the establishment of the Party of Serbian Nationalists represents an attempt by ultra-right forces to, on the one hand, in a new synthesis "overcome the completely marginal effect" of the previous political incarnations of the actors who announced this party, and, on the other hand, that in the current circumstances " marks and occupies the position of the extreme right wing of the political spectrum".
"The student movement, namely, focused completely on the issue of respect for elementary norms of the political community, so these 'protectors of national interests' clearly thought that space had been created for the creation of an ultra-rightist 'legal political combat formation'. In addition, the regime's long-term defensiveness in relation to the 'Kosovo issue' represents an additional motivation for this (un)expected authorization of the extreme right-wing position", he adds.

Đurić says that one can only guess about the ideological-organizational ties of the new party and the government, but that it is difficult to talk about "spontaneity" in political conditions such as ours. "However, even if we assume that this is an example of pure political spontaneity, the fact is that every form of political extremism directly or indirectly corresponds to the current regime. Because, only in conditions of extreme options, the ruling regime can continue to present itself to the foreign and domestic public as some kind of guarantor of political stability", he says.

When asked if it is actually possible to be more right-wing than SNS, Đurić says: "The Serbian Progressive Party is a political organization with a wide ideological spectrum. That flexibility, of course, is not the result of the original pluralism of ideological perspectives within that party, but rather the result of the intention to capture the widest possible range of the voting body and, at the same time, to disqualify as many potential opponents as possible. In this sense, it is possible to be 'more right than the SNS', although in our political circumstances this should also be taken with a grain of salt," he says.

He adds that it can be assumed that the program of this party will correspond with the tendencies of the growing wave of right-wing policies in Europe and in the world, such as the fight against the EU, NATO, the IMF, liberal ideologies, as well as "monitoring the movement of migrants".

"So, regardless of the probably already reserved place in the regime's division of roles, the leaders of the future Party of Serbian Nationalists are looking at these political winds with one eye. But that is already a question for the ruling regime", believes Đurić.

AD HOC SOLUTION

And political scientist Viktor Stamenković links the performance of the "troika" to the crisis of the progressive government, that is, to the current widespread protests in Serbia.

"The previous experience shows that lately, in every situation in which they find themselves on the defensive - and there are more and more such situations - the authorities resort to political solutions, often without elaborated messages. The founding of the party led by Davidović, Vacić and Bihali is probably another product of such instant reaction. The main goal of this move is most likely to divert the focus from key political problems. It is difficult to identify any deeper goal of this initiative", he says.

He believes that this party "almost certainly will not have any electoral potential", given that the citizens "do not take the mentioned trio seriously". This, among other things, is shown by the election results that some of them achieved in previous candidacy attempts. The option of their potential coming to power is completely unrealistic, he believes.

"Benefit for the government could be the voice of this party in the decision-making of the Republican Election Commission (REC) in an expanded composition, if the party participates in the next elections, because according to our electoral legislation, each declared electoral list has the right to its representative in the expanded composition of the REC. However, from the government's point of view, this benefit is not overly significant, since they had a comfortable majority in the Republic of Croatia until now," he says.