Neo-nationalism in the Czech Republic and Its Self-presentation on Social Networks Using the Example of Facebook

Abstract

Neo-nationalistic movements, extreme right-wing organisations, and right‑wing parties are booming not only in Europe; they can be found in nearly all western societies, and, in some countries, they form an inherent part of the political system and participate in government, playing an active role in civil society, organising demonstrations and festivals and publicly providing information about their ideas. In doing so they are gaining influence not only on the political scene, but their topics also affect the opinions and debates of the general public. Neo-nationalistic right-wing movements are common in, for example, Germany and France, and especially in the Central European countries of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. They consider themselves to be ‘patriots’, whose aim is to ‘protect’ their own national culture and nation as such from foreign life forms and religions. This kind of ‘protection’ refers mainly to cultural, ethnic and religious issues. In my contribution, I deal with two neo-nationalistic movements in the Czech Republic and analyse how they present themselves on social media (Facebook). The main focus of my research are Internet memes, through which I want to show how the organisations fight against multiculturalism and open society. The present contribution is divided into three parts: first I provide a brief historical overview of the development of right-wing extremism in the Czech lands, the second part deals with the current situation regarding neo-nationalistic movements in the Czech Republic, and the last presents my research on Internet memes and attempts at categorising them, aiming not only to show the different types of memes but also to discover the strategies, argumentation and ideas of neonationalistic movements.