In social networks and interaction spaces in albanosphere right-wing, radical movements in Albania and in the diaspora are spreading ultra-nationalist ideologies, distributing materials with fascist and Nazi content. They have attitudes contrary to democratic principles and aim to promote the discrimination of minority and marginalized groups. They act in conditions of anonymity, as they are afraid of monitoring (which is not happening) by the institutions.
Author Heldis Ismailaj
Right-wing, radical movements in Albania have begun to spread ultra-nationalist ideologies through social networks in a more organized way.
A flourishing of platforms with content of ideological, fascist propaganda has begun to infiltrate the spaces of thought in albanosphere (space of interaction of Albanians in the network).
With a local but also diaspora following, these movements distribute material with fascist and Nazi content on the most important interactive platforms on the web, such as Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Youtube etc.
At the same time, these groups have begun to actively signal their activity in the public sphere beyond the digital network. Marking their areas of action, sympathizers of these ideologies often distribute materials with ideological, right-wing content around the city of Tirana.
Among them, the platform stands out the most Albanian Third Position (ATP), which also has one blog, which makes it easier to distribute materials for followers of Nazi-fascist ideology among users.
Presented as a meta-political movement, it offers followers a platform where they can be informed about pan-European ultra-nationalist and Nazi-fascist politics.
With themes that include the group's ideological manifesto, nostalgia-inducing image archives of Albania's relations with Fascist Italy, Albanian paganism and anti-communism, this group offers a platform where you can "educate" about The Third Movement.
Third position is a group of political ideologies, neo-fascist, that first appeared in Western Europe after the Second World War. Further developed during the Cold War, it got its name as a result of the doctrine, which represented a third position between Western Bloc capitalism and Eastern Bloc communism.
This movement opposes the principles of modern democracy and Abrahamic religions, and promotes Albanian traditionalism, paganism, homophobia and racism.
The most common interactions among the followers of these platforms are about the role of Islam in Albania and the conspiracies "promoted" by George Soros, like "replacing whites” in Europe, topics that today also find a voice in Albanian politics.
Arlind Qori, activist and teacher, victim of these groups, shows that their activity is extremely harmful to the social fabric of society.
"My experience with these groups is limited to being the object of slander or conspiracy theories, being accused of being a "Sorosist", with all the conspiratorial implications that this marker carries", says Qori.
As the main point of the platform of these movements is and The Great Replacement, also known as substitution theory or the great substitution theory, a far-right nationalist conspiracy theory espoused by the French author, Renaud Camus.
The original theory states that, with the cooperation of the left and a pro-European population "replacement" group, the white European population in general is being replaced demographically and culturally by non-white peoples, especially from Muslim-majority countries, through mass migration and the decline in the birth rate of white Europeans.
For more information on their approaches to the extreme right as a factor in the country, we received the opinion of Prof. Dr. Andi Pinarit, deputy dean at the Faculty of History-Philology, Sara Kelmendit, researcher nearby Institute for Democracy and Mediation and Dr. Arlind Qorit, lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences and co-founder of moBIlIty CO-.
"38,9% of respondents believe that there is a big conspiracy to depopulate Albania and to replace local residents with foreign immigrants. 38% of the sample say that Albanians should not mix with other races, thus showing discriminatory tendencies, which the respondents themselves have had", says Sara Kelmendi, researcher for IDM on violent, non-religious extremism in Albania.
This indicates considerable scope for far-right political groups to gain sympathy among the general public.
The materials of extreme right groups are easily found published on these platforms in Albanian and English. Their posts appear as a well-thought-out targeting campaign of a certain audience in the Albanian sphere of online interaction.
The ideological dissemination initiatives used by these platforms closely resemble patterns of other fascist online groups, according to a 2022 report by RAN Practitioners (Radicalization Awareness Network).
With a number of nearly 3000 followers on their main interaction platforms, the various far-right groups active in the country are increasing their audience day by day by taking advantage of the anonymity that the network allows.
The positions of the extreme right in Albania
Oriented towards "preserving" national identity, groups that identify with far-right policies push ideologies that they consider ultra-nationalist. According to the rhetoric they use in the materials distributed on the network, these movements are the genesis of a new, political, pan-European spirit, which sees the Albanian close to his European "brothers".
During the research on the right-wing spaces in the network, we identified 13 channels, where Albanian ultra-nationalists interact. With almost 3000 followers on Telegram, these groups reach the audience with an active presence in other, popular networks, such as Meta, Youtube, X (formerly TWitter).
"If there is an enabling ground (for far-right policies), it clearly is, because it is exactly this aggravated political climate, which then translates into citizens, who are disappointed by the government and the political factor. Political disappointment is much more evident than other factors", says Sara Kelmendi.
"It is a conglomeration of all these socio-economic, political and cultural drivers that can make Albania more or less exposed to being prone to a form of extremism. Albania has a kind of enabling environment to have currents that respond to the characteristics of the extreme right," she adds.
The platforms connect nationalism and the feeling of national unity with the idea of creating a homogeneous, Albanian space.
The materials and comments they share on the network hold ultra-conservative positions, which align with those of the European extreme right. These groups express opposite attitudes to liberal movements, marginalized communities, minority groups, ethnic groups and immigrants.
"In the broader sense of the extreme right, the spread of these ideas is facilitated by social despair, the weaknesses of economic and social organization, such as trade unions, student unions, etc., which would serve as emancipatory channels of grievances economic and social", says Arlind Qori.
With quite violent posts and images against minorities, these groups attack the initiatives for the promotion of basic rights, which some minorities have begun to enjoy in Western societies.
A good part of the individuals who join these rhetorics in the network are also fans of the football teams in the country, which creates a close connection between the Albanian ultra-nationalists and the football ultras.
"As far as I remember, there may have been some neo-Nazi symbols in football matches or some peripheral pages on social networks, but nothing more," says Arlind Qori.
The close connection of football ultras with the extreme right is a factor that has recently begun to be studied in the European context as well. Many fan groups in Europe (hooligans) manifest far-right rhetoric against Islam, immigration, LGBTQIA+ people, as well as misogynistic rhetoric.
During the research and monitoring of the spaces of interaction of members of different groups, which manifest Nazi-fascist ideology in albanosphere, it was noticed that most of them manifest the desire to maintain anonymity, until the moment that their political movement begins to be more accepted in society. Mostly because of the fear of being monitored by law enforcement; unrealistic fear, because, judging by the responses of various state institutions, there is no monitoring.
"This year we have an increase of 4.2 percent of respondents who agree or partially agree that there are individuals or groups that promote violence in the areas where they live compared to 2021. Respondents are less inclined to express agreement on the acceptance of individuals or groups that promote ethno-nationalist extremism. The survey conducted at the end of 2023 confirmed again that political extremism remains more worrying for citizens than religious or ethnic extremism", says Sara Kelmendi regarding the study conducted on the trends of violent, non-religious extremism.
In fact, there is no data from the state institutions that could give an indication of the extent of the interaction of these ideologies. This statement comes as a result of negative responses to the possession of information on the subject from various institutions, which ACQJ has contacted
With the desire to understand more about the information that the Albanian institutions have collected on the movements of the extreme right in the country, some requests for information were sent to some state institutions. We contacted the Ministry of the Interior, the State Police, the Prosecutor's Office, the National Authority for Electronic Certification and Cyber Security (CESK) and the Coordination Center against Violent Extremism (QKEDH).
The extreme right rejects the Albanian republic as the representative model of Albanians
The members of the far-right Albanian groups reject the model of the republican state and invite the return to the "traditional, European" state.
In the Manifesto unveiled on the group's platform Albanian Third Position followers are invited to re-conceptualize the state model and return to the monarchical state. Connecting their line of thought with Skenderbeu's "state" model, for them the democratic state and the republic have betrayed the Albanian spirit and the traditional and cultural values of the Albanians.
The Albanian state, according to them, should be an ethnic state, which unites the people through racial affiliation, and race is the basic thing in preserving values and blood.
Through official "propaganda" platforms, far-right groups allow members to download and distribute materials.
Posters can be downloaded, stickers, reading materials, selected by the administrators of the platforms, to distribute by hand or unfold them in the cities where they live.
Many members take the initiative to climb stickers-ave in different areas of the cities where they live, inside and outside the country, often covering up stickers- others, who are "left". The purpose of distributing the materials is to declare the presence of the extreme right in spaces where you would not think they are present.
Albanian Third Position and the movement for right-wing policies in Albania
Albanian Third Position (ATP) calls its organization as a movement of the third position, political. The main topics of the discourse are related to Albanian culture, race, policies and the vision of the state.
The presence of this initiative is seen for the first time in the network, starting from 2019 with the publication of a letter from Ismet Toto, a political figure, representative of the movement called neo-Albanianism of the 30s.
Neo-Albanianism was an intellectual and cultural movement in Albania in the 1930s with the main representatives Branko Merxhanin and Vangjel Koça, which sought the modernization and cultural independence of the Albanian nation, in an effort to further what the National Renaissance had achieved, i.e. the establishment of the Albanian state ", says Prof. Dr. Andi Pinari.
Prof. Pinari adds that essentially neo-Albanianism is not directly related to the extreme right or fascism, as it was rather an intellectual and cultural movement, which sought cultural independence and the modernization of the Albanian nation. Although it had nationalist elements, according to him, it was not a direct political ideology, as fascism was.
Arlind Qori thinks that the spread of extreme right-wing ideas is facilitated by the degradation of the educational system.
"...has brought the need for brief explanations of the "scapegoat", as in the case of conspiracy theories, but also as an effect of the ideologies encountered in the West, which necessarily have an impact on Albanian society".
Social media is also a space where these groups easily capture the attention of the audience. From interactions to TikTok about 41 thousand views are counted only on the page ATP.
In other far-right accounts this number of views increases, as in the case of Illyrian Pagan, which counts about 102 thousand views.
This demonstrates the efficient access to the network and the ease with which materials with fascist messages are distributed.
Also present in Youtube, where they have 58 thousand views, on Instagram, with nearly 1400 followers, among the main accounts for sharing their views ATP actively shares content about culture, religion, race and conservatism.
Mostly they interact with each other through the social network Telegram. Selected as a platform that guarantees anonymity, they share their beliefs and ideas with each other, organizing themselves in close groups, but also with physical gatherings of some of the members.
The method of action is through the creation of open channels for the distribution of ideological information, which are mostly closed and where only channel administrators can post.
The initiative of ATP, like creating the platform Pagan Albanian, counts about 974 followers on Instagram and posts content related to Albanian paganism and traditionalism, promoting denial of religious beliefs.
With an increase in interest in spirituality and paganism, sites that connect the national and historical context with pagan religions in Albanian lands have become popular, facilitating the serving of far-right propaganda.
"16.3% of the sample claims that, in the area where they live, there are individuals or groups that promote violent, political extremism. Regarding ethno-nationalist extremism, there is actually a significant increase of 10,3% compared to 2021 in the percentage of respondents who express that they are concerned with this form of extremism", says Sara Kelmendi.
Oftentimes, through reposting the same material, groups like ATP they find it easy to serve these materials to wider audiences, not directly addressing their politics, but achieving the dissemination of key concepts.
"When (the respondents) were asked about the forms of discrimination that they themselves had faced during the last year, they first listed discrimination due to ethnicity, discrimination and hate speech due to political affiliation, such as and discrimination and hate speech due to religious belief, with a total of 119 responses, where there were also reports of verbal violence, discrimination due to socio-economic status or due to sexual orientation, as well as gender-based discrimination ", - adds Kelmendi regarding the study conducted by IDM.
The policies of this initiative seem to be against the democratic state and progressive movements. Attacking marginalized groups through the anonymity afforded by the web and the platforms they use, including Telegram, as the main communication platform, they spread their messages without consequence.
Closed channels of interaction, mostly created in Telegram, allow all members to communicate ultra-nationalist thoughts with each other.
Appearing in virtual "agoras", their messages are accompanied by strong hate speech against marginalized groups.
The images spread connect the spirit of national unity with the language of hate and encourage the alienation of religious groups, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and refugees.
It is often commented on the attitudes that channel members have against left-wing ideologies or migrants.
Signing of Italy-Albania Migration Protocol for bringing 3000 migrants to a camp built by the Italian state, brought an increase in activity on these platforms.
There were no shortage of calls for the organization of protests and extreme calls for the throwing of molotovs towards the refugees, to give "a message" about not accepting them in the Albanian territory.
The participants, through "freedom of expression" in anonymity, quietly share with each other their thoughts and beliefs regarding the idea of a conspiracy to depopulate Albania and repopulate it with immigrants from African countries.
The tools for monitoring hate speech or content that incites violence against certain groups are limited to these rhetorics. This is clearly proven by the lack of data from Albanian institutions on this trends growing.
We have noticed during the research a lack of initiatives for the identification of groups that manifest tendencies with a high risk potential for violence.
The far-right movements in Albania have been showing increased activity in social networks and interaction spaces for years, spreading ultra-nationalist ideologies and promoting attitudes contrary to democratic values. This tendency brings great challenges to Albanian society, to politics and institutions, prompting the need for a discussion and a stance in defense of the values of freedom, tolerance and respect for diversity.
This article is part of the Investigative Journalism Laboratory project, which is financially supported by the Public Relations Office of the US Embassy in Tirana. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of State.
