Authors

Discussion

Members of leftist youth movements in Slovenia and in Croatia would agree that narratives of historical resentments are a common strategy used by hybrid regime governments to redirect their attention from solving more existential issues to creating imaginary smoke-screen issues and new enemies. By focusing on resistance narratives of younger generations, I wanted to detect the place historical narratives and their manipulations have in current (post-)Yugoslav societies. While it could be said that young activists are conscious of the power of historical heritage to bear values for a more responsible and a quality future, it is also true that they are very sensitive to damaging historical narratives which deepen divisions between people. While the politicians spreading them are trying to keep people caught in the past, the younger generations are demanding new narratives, such which will have a value for their future, and such which will help them find their place in a deeply precarious and uncertain world. I will draw my conclusions by comparing symbols used by two movements: the Friday Bikers in Slovenia and the March for Freedom in the city of Rijeka (Croatia).