Populist Memory Discourses in Contemporary East Central and Southeastern Europe: Their Roots and Main Features

The article discusses the nationalist right-wing memory discourses in contemporary East Central and Southeastern Europe. It points out their main features such as: nationalization, re-nationalization, securitization, victimization, and weaponization of the Communist and post-Communist past. The focus is to explain the historical and cultural roots of these memory discourses, which are of vital importance for understanding the rise of the right-wing populism in the region. Moreover, the article shows that the right-wing memory discourses include a number of elements that are typical for populism as political style, such as the appeal to “the people“ put against “the elite”, the Manichean vision of the world and strategic soliciting of emotions.