By Gordana Basovic

Although with no historical foundation in Serbia, different forms of right extremism, neo-fascism, national chauvinism, and clerical fascism are often manifested publicly as a behaviour model of individuals and even organisations and political parties. Although Neo-Nazi organisations have been trying, almost undisturbed, for nearly three years to become an important public factor, it was only a couple of days ago that the State has undertaken a concrete action against these extreme movements.

State Prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic has proposed the Serbia Constitutional Court to place a ban on the informal organisation "Nacionalni stroj" ("National Formation") functioning for provoking religious and national hatred. In November 2005 this unregistered organisation activists have stormed an antifascist tribune organised at the Novi Sad Faculty of Philosophy and started insulting participants. One year later the Novi Sad District Court Council sentenced first defendant Goran Davidovic aka Fuehrer to one-year prison term for provoking religious, national, and racial hatred.

Consensus regarding precise criteria for determining an organisation as a Neo-Nazi one has still not been publicly achieved. An argument has been often heard that, having in mind the rampancy of Neo-Nazism, Serbia is hardly lagging behind the European Union countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Great Britain. Nevertheless, there is a diametrical difference between the Neo-Nazi and antifascist organisations in Germany and the similar ones in Serbia.

Serbian associations of the extreme right are similar to the European ones in terms of organisation and mutual connections. However, Neo-Nazism or neo-fascism in Germany is generally directed towards racial and political intolerance while in Serbia it is mainly based on national and religious grounds.

The difference is also obvious in antifascist movements since, unlike in Serbia, the state institutions have supported those organisations in the EU, whereas in Germany and Austria Holocaust denial is even outlawed. That way neo-fascist organisations have been marginalised while the situation in Serbia is reversed. Extreme right and fascist organisations have, if not open, covert support of right political parties, as well as some streams in state institutions, University, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) and Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). In such a way, antifascist incentives and organisations are those that are marginalised in Serbia.

The proof of public being very much concerned about the Neo-Nazism rise is the Ministry of Interior and Vojvodina Assembly Security Committee 2005 report on "Nazi organisations` operations in Vojvodina". Referring to the police report that brought "Nacionalni stroj" ("National Formation"), skinheads, "Krv i cast" ("Blood and Honour"), and "Rasionalisti" ("Racialists") under the Nazi organisations label, while "Obraz" ("The Cheek") was marked as a clerical fascist organisation, stated was the number of Neo-Nazis and racists in Serbia and Vojvodina.

"Anti-Western feelings, nationalism, ideological exclusiveness, devotion to Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, homophobia, animosity towards liberal values and anti-Semitism are their mutual programme elements," says this report directly denying allegations that there is no extremism in our country.

Therefore, we should be on our guard since it is obvious Serbia is in danger of Neo-Nazism rehabilitation. According to Zarko Korac, social psychologist and Social-Democrat Union President, this rehabilitation had already taken place during the Vojislav Kostunica government when passed was the law equalising both collaborationists and the First World War combatants, as well as "Ravnogorski pokret" ("Ravna Gora Movement") members with the Second World War antifascist soldiers. Korac reminds us that, at that time, the Democratic Party also supported that law.

"Beside this, on the political scene frequently can be heard glorification of Milan Nedic`s political capabilities. In his book, Dejan Medakovic, late SANU President, has included Milan Nedic as one of the hundred most important individuals in this area, the fact that is inadmissible. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has also not dissociated itself from clerical fascist organization `Obraz` that has been operating under the auspices of some members of the SPC. That way Neo-Nazism and clerical Nazism ideas, that have their stronghold in the Orthodox Church teaching, have ideologically existed since the eighties. They have gained their embodiment in 2000 through the Internet sites and in 2005, for the first time, the Serbian public has faced the Neo-Nazis` outburst at the Novi Sad Faculty of Philosophy tribune. Only now, the State has finally reacted and this is good," explains Korac adding all activities of such organisations should be banned.

Zarko Trebjesanin, the psychologist, considers the situation in Serbia as not an alarming one but points out that is essential to motivate both society and the State to hamper these extreme phenomena.

"This is similar to deadly viruses - although there are just five persons affected it cannot be ruled out ten million people could die unless effective and urgent preventive measures were undertaken. Nazism should be talked about at all social and state levels and in schools also. At the very beginning, notions should be marked off. Nationalism meaning love for your own people sounds like no trouble but nationalist chauvinism or blind love for your own ethnic group is terrible and leads towards extremism - either right or the left one - bringing no well-being," says Trebjesanin adding there are numerous researches on Nazi personalities types.

He notes those are authoritative individuals who perceive world as black-and-white and are often politically radical while all belonging to them is angelic and bright and all the rest diabolic and black and should be destroyed.

"Those people, having serious problems, project their faults and weaknesses to other people and hate them to the most extreme forms of aggressiveness. The best example makes the relation between extreme Albanians and Serbs. While listening to the Albanian extremist you will hear all the Serbs are uneducated, aggressive, and primitive. The same qualifications will be heard from the extreme Serb regarding the Albanians. In addition, the greatest homophobes, say, in the Nazi Germany, were of the gay orientation," explains Trebjesanin adding that most frequently those were uneducated persons coming from problematic families where they have been exposed to oppression and aggressive upbringing.

However, he considers the existence of drawing-room Nazism and fascism should not be disregarded, although basically, those are identical psychological types of personalities who have their own psychological problems.

German politicians` attempt to apply the German law banning Nazi symbols in the whole EU was hampered by the British, Danish, and Italian officials justifying their decision by the "freedom of expression" that has been grounded in their countries` laws. Beside German and Anglo-Saxon countries, Neo-Nazism is also visible in Slovene states like Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia.

In view of the fact that Neo-Nazism also implicates hatred towards Slavs as the "lower race", in these countries, as well as in Serbia, there is so-called Slavic anti-Slavism, i.e., absurd situation in which ethnic Slavs consider Slavic people as a lower race.

Nevertheless, encouraging is the move of the neighbouring Croatia where recently the first sentence has been pronounced for emphasising the black cap with the big "U", the symbol of the Ustasha, pro-Nazi movement in Croatia during the Second World War.