Right-wing extremism has become a virulent phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe in the last years. Political parties like Hungary’s Jobbik and Ataka in Bulgaria won seats in national parliaments and succeeded in dominating parts of the political discourses. In these weeks the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung publishes a set of studies presenting the situation in most of the countries of the region by identifying the actors of right-wing extremism, their influence on the respective political landscape and state-driven or civil society-based counterstrategies.

In Serbia, former right-wing leader Vojislav Šešelj’s Serbian Radical Party (SRS) split in 2008. The majority of the party and its supporters turned to the new Serbian Progressive Party (SNP) as a moderately conservative political party. Following the general elections of 2012 the SNP formed a coalition government together with the post-Miloševi? SPS and its leader Tomislav Nikoli? won last years’ presidential election. However, there are strong movements at the far right of the political spectrum that despise parliamentarianism and political parties. Working-class youths, usually unemployed and generally not well-educated, serve as their recruiting base. This situation is aggravated by mass unemployment, which currently stands at more than one fourth of the overall population of working age and about 50 percent of people under 30 years of age.