Extreme-Right Ideology, Practice and Supporters: Case Study of the Serbian Radical Party

Abstract

This paper deals with the European extreme right in general, and the Serbian extreme right in particular. One can find almost all the symptoms of the extreme right present in the ideology of the Serbian Radical Party, as the leading extreme-right party in Serbia. In the unlikely case of a general upsurge of the European extreme right, the Radicals might even join forces with more extremist neo-Nazi groups and thus produce a frightening reincarnation of the SA formations. A more realistic danger comes from the attractiveness of the Serbian Radical Party to the lower strata. The losers in the process of social transformation, such as the numerous unemployed, unskilled and semi-skilled workers represent a deep reservoir of support for the extreme right, especially given the profound lack of credibility of the left in Serbia at the end of the 1990s. With so many losers produced by the post-socialist economic reforms and with the bitterly disputed status of Kosovo and Republika Srpska, the political potential of the extreme right in Serbia is ominously large. Nevertheless, the recent split will certainly damage the SRP very signficantly, leaving it without able politicians in the leadership.