Good morning! Yesterday, BIRN published a map of far-right and extremist organizations and groups, of which it mapped 7 in Montenegro. Four are close to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), one is Bosniak, and two are Montenegrin men and women, alleged extremists. Who is it about?
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Who are Montenegrin extremists?
Yesterday, BIRN published a map of far-right and extremist organizations and groups, and on it, in addition to organizations close to the SPC, it also included one Bosniak and two Montenegrin groups.
The list, that is, the map, is extremely controversial in terms of the list of groups and organizations, as well as the people who were on it. It’s not about whether or not these or those extremists exist, it’s about the process of proving a claim so that it becomes relevant. Putting people on the list of extremists is a very serious matter, which will complicate the lives of those people, especially since, when it comes to BIRN, it is a credible institution, whose claims resonate with the international public.
When it comes to the list of Montenegrin organizations and groups, the researchers did a tendentious and unprofessional job, including people in the group arbitrarily. If they had done serious research, they could have come across groups and individuals within the Montenegrin part of the political spectrum, who could act at least as a group or organization to begin with. And then they could go into the process of proving their extremism, extreme right-wing positions and the like. Instead, it seems that they decided to take a word-of-mouth approach by including in the list of members of organizations people who do not know each other, nor do they form any groups together or are identified as part of a social group or organization.
Let’s start with the methodology. The authors of the project decided to map far-right and extremist organizations and groups. Therefore, it is important to clarify what “far right” means, what “extremism” means, for which definitions the organizations and social groups have opted for.
For the purposes of this text, we have taken the first available definitions of these terms from relevant sources.
“Far right, extreme right, radical right or ultra-right is a term used to denote the far-right spectrum of political ideologies. Far-right politics often include supremacism — the belief that superiority and inferiority is an innate reality between individuals and groups, as well as a complete rejection of the concept of social equality as a norm. The extreme right often supports the policy of segregation, that is, the separation of groups it considers superior from groups it considers inferior. Far-right politics often include authoritarianism, nativism, racism and xenophobia. The ideologies most often associated with the extreme right are fascism, Nazism and other ultra-nationalist, extreme religious or reactionary ideologies”.
References (Griffin, Roger (2005). Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion (Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions). Routledge 1 edition, Hilliard, Robert L.; Keith, Michael C. (1999). Waves of Rancor: Tuning in the Radical Right. New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. Merkl, Peter H.; Weinberg, Leonard (1999). Right-wing Extremism in the Twenty-first Century. London, England, UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: M. E. Sharpe Inc.)
“A social group is a relatively permanent set of interconnected people, which performs a certain social function or satisfies a human need. It is a group of individuals who enter into mutual relations in a systematic way.
A formal group is a type of group where goals, positions, roles, as well as standards of behavior and mutual relations of members are formally, clearly and precisely prescribed. A formal group is created deliberately, it is officially formed by a certain founding act, while the structure of the group, the basic tasks, as well as the mutual relations and obligations of the members are usually legally prescribed by the statute and relatively stable”.
Formal groups include organizations.
“An informal group is a type of group that does not have formally established goals and norms of behavior, does not have a fixed and closed structure, nor firmly established positions and formalized roles. It arises spontaneously, is formed in relation to a freely chosen goal, through intimate mutual communication between group members who have the same beliefs, interests and aspirations, and remains relatively open to new members, as well as to changes in the structure. An informal group can be created independently of any other group or within a larger formal group, as part of it”.
Reference (Ivan Vidanovic, Dictionary of Social Work, 2006)
Extremism is essentially a political term that defines activities that are not in accordance with the norms of the state, that are completely intolerant of others, reject democracy as a means of governance and a way of solving problems, and reject the existing social order.
Reference (Andrej Sotlar, Some Problems with a Definition and Perception of Extremism within a Society, University of Maribor, Faculty of Criminal Justice)
These definitions are not final, nor is there a consensus with regard to them, and we can argue about them, but it would be good to see which definitions were used by BIRN researchers and editors during the methodology used to list the Bogougodnice, Komitas and patriots, how they defined them as groups or organizations and in which their performances and public actions generally they recognized the elements of extremism and the extreme right.
Let’s start with “Komitas and Patriots” – there is no such organization, there is no formal or informal social group, there is a social protest movement created after 2020, which is pejoratively called like that by the propagandist media close to the authorities in Belgrade and Moscow. There is a party called the Patriotic-Komitas Alliance, which has right-wing elements in its activities, and it was only there that they formally named an outspoken member and the leader of that movement, Tanja Perisic. However, even that movement is not homogeneous and has split into two currents, i.e. two organizations. Although it is about the right, I do not consider it to be a far right and an extremist organization, but I have not dealt with them in detail, and I leave room for researchers to prove extremism and far-right positions.
If “Komitas and Patriots” were chosen according to this criterion and equated with the overall protest movement, then they put right a lot of names as members of the movement, but they should have added more names, including the author of these lines. But then, on the other hand, they had to put a religious procession protest movement, and use the pejorative name “litijasi” (*procession supporters) for them.
Therefore, this is not a social group, nor an informal one, but it is clearly a question of the laziness of the researchers who equalized an entire heterogeneous and often unrelated protest, risking that all criticism and opposition to the Krivokapic-Abazovic governments would be classified as extremism.
Let’s start with the names of people from this list. Predrag Vusurovic is a banker, former youth leader of the anti-war Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG). Since the change of government he has been part of an informal movement that organizes protests, with the support and participation of opposition parties. It is a similar case with Nebojsa Mrvaljevic, who formally reports some of these protests through his NGO Luca. Therefore, all the political parties of the opposition and their leaders should have been included in this group.
Drasko Didi Martinovic is a Twitter activist and fan, who used to be employed at Vijesti. Drasko is not part of the Komitas movement. He is a member of the fan group Ultra Crna Gora (Ultra Montenegro) and 21 May civic initiative.
Aleksandar Sasa Zekovic is a member of the 21 May civic initiative, and an activist who, in the previous two years, organized a series of protests outside the mentioned framework. Protests are always organized from a human rights perspective. He is an anti-fascist activist, who devoted his entire professional work to the fight for the rights of marginalized groups.
Bogugodnice is an informal feminist group created as a reaction to the strengthening of mapped right-wing Serbian-orthodox organizations that brought back and raised topics of a discriminatory nature in the public space, when it comes to women’s rights, women’s reproductive health, specifically the right to abortion and the like. They were often attacked at protests.
However, the researchers listed the names incorrectly even in the case of Boguogodnice. Tijana Lopocic is an activist, in whose actions nationalist moments can be recognized, but she can hardly be classified as an extremist and a member of the extreme right. I am not aware that she was ever a part of Bogugodnice.
Maja Milickovic is the informal leader of the informal group Bogougodnice, and she used a satirical approach to criticize the positions of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Also, researchers should clearly prove her extremism and belonging to the extreme right.
Finally, Kacusa Krsmanovic and Tanja Pavicevic, journalists with many years of experience, were mentioned and listed. Tanja Pavicevic worked for Vijesti, she worked in the government and the Parliament, and now she conducts a series of interviews at Matica Crnogorska (* it studies and affirms historical and cultural heritage of Montenegro).
So, for all these people, it should be proven that they propagate the ideas of the supremacy of the Montenegrin nation, if they are members of the extreme right, or that they at least advocate the rejection of democracy and the violent change of government if they are extremists.
And finally, it should be proved that they are part of an informal group or organization. I think that the researchers failed in this, that it is a matter of tendentious and arbitrary reporting aimed at defaming certain people.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
