Summary. Starting with the death of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague and the reactions to it in Belgrade this march

Starting with the death of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague and the reactions to it in Belgrade this march, disclosing a deeply divided society, this article gives an illustration of the developments which led to the secessional wars in former Yugoslavia. This wars inflamed on the base of destructive nationalisms in the region. A multitude of theories explain the conflicts in the Balkans with the picture of a huge ‘refrigerator’, in which the old ethnic cleavages were ‘frozen’ in socialist times. The collapse of socialism ‘de-frosted’ the conflicts and caused the wars. Contrary to this position, this account identifies the severe economic crisis of the 1970s and the regionally based economic fragmentation as decisive causal factor. Both combined led after the death of Tito in the 1980s to uncertainty and a receptiveness for radical solutions in the Yugoslavian societies. This receptiveness of the masses was abused by regional actors greedy for power. They had a deep look in the tool box of history. In this perspective, rather than historical legacies creating the secessional wars, historical memories of the societies were instrumentalized to produce an atmosphere of incited nationalism. In the forefront of the year of destiny 2006 for the Balkans, where a number of important questions will be tackled (Montenegro, Kosovo), such a review is adequate to clarify the necessity of a short- or medium-term membership perspective of the Western Balkans in the European Union. Membership in the EU is through the stabilization of the economics the best medicine against any new eruptions of a destructive nationalism.

Европа

О. Шотт

Центральный Университет Европейских Исследований, (г. Будапешт, Венгрия)