In the week behind us, two seemingly unrelated things revealed the true face of right-wing populism. Which always feeds on paranoia and exists on the stimulation of negative emotions, but persistently hides the real obsessive theme of all such policies, which is the change of borders. A century and a half has passed since nationalism emerged as an ideology, arguably the most widespread and tenacious, but in all those hundred and fifty years he could not think of any other content, except for changing borders and insisting on paranoia and single-mindedness. Even more valuable for understanding the true intentions of that ideology is the surprising honesty of Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and Putin's explanation of the reasons for the attack on Ukraine, which culminated with this year's Victory Day over Fascism parade.
A problem that is yet to become serious
Orban thus finally concluded, again related to the issue of the embargo on oil trade with Russia, that Hungary would not have these problems today if the sea had not been taken away from it. Thinking primarily of Rijeka, of course. Due to circumstances, I am currently writing this text in Rijeka, which indeed developed as one of the two main ports of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and with the significant help of Hungarian capital, but where people of different affiliations have always lived and which, according to no logic, could not even belong to Italy , for which there were more arguments, let alone Hungary. This regret of Hungarian nationalism for the great Hungary is nothing new, but the truth is that Orbán's statement represents a step further in relation to the privatization of Adriatic hotels and the Football Club. Osijek, which is a model identical to the one used in Serbia.
What is not yet new, regardless of the fact that some diplomatic reactions have been heard from Croatia, is the almost complete ignoring of the fact that Hungarian nationalism considers both Croatia and Serbia countries that have taken certain territories from them. This silence on this issue, and even the close political relations of the leaders of Croatia and Serbia with Viktor Orban, are all the more tragic when they are placed in the context of the tension when it comes to the relationship with other neighboring nationalisms or minorities in those countries. Which only testifies to how humble local nationalists are towards the more powerful and essentially in the service of other people's interests. That problem will only become serious in the near future, after Russia has put on the table the change of borders as a legitimate goal of political and war efforts.
And that brings us to Russia and its persistent privatization of the victory over fascism. Which, it is true, would not have happened without the crucial help of the USSR and its Red Army, but all the Soviet peoples took part in it, including the Ukrainians in large numbers, which is seen as irrelevant in Russia. This approach, apart from falsifying the past, has in its subtext the thesis that there are anti-fascist and fascist nations. What this logic looks like when it is carried out to the end, we are witnessing these days in Ukraine. Which eventually completely perverts the original idea of anti-fascism, which leads to the fact that aggression against neighboring nations and countries is being sold under the symbols of the pentacle and the story of anti-fascism, while denying the right of entire nations to their own political choice.
Same messages
We saw an almost identical thing in Yugoslavia, which had a smaller scope, but a much bigger fight against fascism and domestic traitors in the Second World War, so that the whole thing ended in the privatization of the five-pointed symbol and the JNA as the direct successor of the partisan movement. With the same messages about genocidal and freedom-loving nations. Which, of course, does not mean that the correct reaction is for those who are attacked to renounce their own partisan heritage and the anti-fascist movement.
However, these discussions about the past and the appropriation of certain symbols and messages, no matter how interesting they are for the future of European societies, are still less important than the fact that Europe is once again faced with the idea that it is necessary and desirable to change borders and ethnically cleanse territories, what else, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after all, she did not find an answer.
Bonus video:
