Introduction: What is the Post-Yugoslav 'new left'? Seven new states have been formed where Yugoslavia once stood. It is a post-Yugoslav, post-partition, post-conflict, and post-socialist landscape, one that seems to be in a never-ending 'transition' into free-market economies and liberal democracies. 2 The appearance of what I will call here the post-Yugoslav 'new left' can be clearly detected in the post-2008 crisis period. The one salutary consequence of the 2008 financial crash was its delegitimizing effect on the previously almost unquestioned neoliberal dogma and on the idea that there is 'no alternative' to capitalism. When the shock wave hit the postsocialist Balkans, it only added an additional blow to an already ruined landscape. After a series of devastating wars during the 1990s, which involved most of the post-Yugoslav states, came the postwar 'recovery' in the form of the usual neoliberal 'restructuring'. Privatization campaigns, besides lucrative deals for foreign companies and banks, gave rise to and consolidated a new economic oligarchy, tightly connected with the post-socialist political elite. De-industrialisation destroyed the economy. Up to 130,000 lives were lost in the wars, 3 and millions were displaced. 4 According to Trading Economics, the unemployment in 2014-15 is between 12-13% in Slovenia, 14-15% in Montenegro, 16-20% in Croatia, 19-20% in Serbia, 27-28% in Macedonia, 43% in Bosnia, and 35% in Kosovo. In most countries, youth unemployment is usually around 40-50%. Predictably, all post-Yugoslav states are highly indebted, with Croatia and 1 This research is supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
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