Neonazi, clerofascist rally, citizens counter-rally planned in Novi Sad

Published: October 3, 2007

After getting their initial permission to hold the rally in Novi Sad cancelled, the ultranationalistic groups consisting mostly of neonazis and clerofascists decided to hold a rally without it, on 7th of October. The police stated they will react in case of an illegal get-together, but there are also voices coming from some political parties and NGOs calling the citizens to protest this rally by holding a counter-protest the same day – October 7th.

If you remember the previous case, it was the neonazis who were supposed to break up the ganja march, but since the ganja march was never held, nobody showed up in the end. This time, it seems that the ultrarights are consistent in their idea, so a get-together is definitely going to happen – you can see it from numerous nationalistic forums and the blog of local neonazi leader Goran Davidovic.

Is it a good idea to make a counter-rally at the same day, or should they be allowed to walk the streets freely that day? A non-violent counter-protest would be the best solution in my opinion, but I know it’s virtually impossible to getaway without some sort of confrontation.

One extremely interesting thing I noticed while following the preparations for the rally on various Serbian nazi-forums is that the fascist, nazi-, racist and fundamentalistic ideas these people stand for are in this particular case, and maybe generally when it comes to Serbian nazis, masked behind the idea of Serbdom and patriotic love for Serbia. The notifications left on these forums explicitly state that the protesters must not carry any kind of nazi amblems, nor any other amblem connecting them to some specific group of ultraright wingers – now this is the sort of propaganda Goebels himself would be proud of. The idea is actually so cunning that the members of ideologically contradictory right wing groups such as Obraz and Skinheads are cooperating without any issues, united over their twisted idea what love for Serbia should really be about.

To give you an idea of exactly how much these groups are far to the right, I’ll just say that the members of the Serbian radical party are considered traitors in their eyes – go figure.

If nothing else comes up on that Sunday, I will be in Novi Sad on October 7th, protesting, and I’ll try to update my twitter with how things are developing.