The Far-Right Landscape in the Western Balkans

This report is part of the larger anthology “Western Balkans 2023: Assessment of Internal Challenges and External Threats”

Read the report here

Read the full anthology here

Hikmet Karčić dissects the evolving convergence between global and Western Balkan far‑right currents, with Serbia emerging as the primary node. The deepening alliances between local movements and international actors—including American, British, and Russian far‑right networks—are fueled by economic turmoil, migration anxieties, and climate‑induced instability.

Serbian nationalism, grounded in genocidal ideology, Islamophobia, anti‑Western orientation, and Orthodox‑Christian symbolism, is the most consequential. Political actors like Vučić and Vulin, aligned with far‑right groups, advocate a Greater Serbian project encompassing ethnically homogeneous expansion—rhetoric that resonates with the Global Far Right (GFR. Serbian far‑right symbolism, such as the “Remove Kebab” memes and genocidal songs, continues to inspire extremist violence globally, as seen in both the Utoya and Christchurch massacres.

Croatian far‑right currents, while less ideologically complex and less internationally networked, draw explicitly from Ustaša-era fascism and persist in nationalist imagery and influence within the HDZ and Bosnian Croat politics.

By contrast, Kosovar and Bosniak far‑right movements remain marginal, with limited reach or connections to the GFR—Kosovo’s right‑wing nationalism is driven by independence aspirations, whereas Bosniak extremism is fringe and largely confined to online platforms

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not an official policy or position of the New Lines Institute's Western Balkans Center.