{"id":81800,"date":"2024-06-26T16:20:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T16:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/black-shirts-and-banned-flags-ultras-push-politics-at-euro-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T16:20:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T16:20:04","slug":"black-shirts-and-banned-flags-ultras-push-politics-at-euro-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/black-shirts-and-banned-flags-ultras-push-politics-at-euro-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Shirts and Banned Flags: Ultras Push Politics at Euro 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/25\/multimedia\/25soccer-hungary-01-gjkc\/25soccer-hungary-01-gjkc-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Black Shirts and Banned Flags: Ultras Push Politics at Euro 2024\" title=\"Black Shirts and Banned Flags: Ultras Push Politics at Euro 2024\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The instructions were concise and clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those hoping to march to the stadium with Hungary\u2019s fans for their soccer team\u2019s first game of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/tag\/european-championship\/\" title=\"\">the European Championship<\/a> were expected to report by 10 a.m. sharp, five hours before kickoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A strict dress code would apply. Some could wear black. Others were to stick with red, white and green, the colors of the country\u2019s flag. Under no circumstances was there to be any flashiness. \u201cGaudy colors, clown hats and bagpipes\u201d were all prohibited. They were, prospective marchers were reminded, \u201cgoing to a soccer stadium, not a circus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hectoring and slightly priggish tone felt jarring, considering the source of the orders: the official Facebook page of the Carpathian Brigade, a virulently nationalistic faction of hard-core fans \u2014 ultras, as such groups are known \u2014 that provides the Hungarian national team with its vociferous and volatile backing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Carpathian Brigade has, in recent years, become perhaps Europe\u2019s most infamous ultra group, its reputation forged by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2021\/oct\/12\/hungary-supporters-fight-with-police-inside-wembley\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">clashing with the police<\/a>, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/12010\/12413651\/hungary-fined-by-fifa-and-handed-stadium-ban-for-racist-behaviour-from-supporters-against-england\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">showering opponents with racist abuse<\/a> and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/57784724\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">displaying homophobic banners<\/a>. In 2021, during the last European Championship, it had to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bellingcat.com\/news\/uk-and-europe\/2021\/09\/09\/meet-the-far-right-fanatics-getting-hungarys-football-team-in-trouble\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">remind members to cover up any Nazi-related tattoos<\/a> so as not to contravene German law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">None of that has stopped its growth. If anything, it has accelerated it. Drawn by the Carpathian Brigade\u2019s voluble Hungarian patriotism and unabashed right-wing values \u2014 an ideology that both echoes and trumpets the populist rhetoric of Viktor Orban, the country\u2019s prime minister \u2014 the group may now be able to call on as many as 15,000 members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is also not alone. Black-clad ultras have been a fixture at Euro 2024 this month, with detachments \u2014 sometimes numbering a few hundred, sometimes a little larger \u2014 visible across Germany and at games involving Albania, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia, among others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Though some of those groups were formed as a response to the Carpathian Brigade, in most cases they do not share either its motivations or its precise political agenda, and none carry quite the same air of menace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their presence, though, is an issue for UEFA, European soccer\u2019s governing body, which has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplinary.uefa.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">levied fines on a number of countries<\/a> during the tournament, including multiple punishments for \u201ctransmitting provocative messages not fit for a sports event.\u201d The groups do not just provide a soundtrack and a visual spectacle for games, they also hint at the rising tide of nationalism across Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is contagious,\u201d said Piara Powar, the executive director of Fare, an anti-discrimination network that monitors extremism within soccer. \u201cFor a lot of them, it is theater, more than anything. But you have to be careful playing with this stuff, because the Hungarians are playing for real.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Carpathian Brigade\u2019s power is, certainly, unrivaled. In Cologne, as the group had demanded, the march to the stadium this month was an orderly affair. There was no violence, and no bagpipes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A few days later, when Hungary faced Germany in Stuttgart, the group pushed the boundaries a little. On that day\u2019s march, the crowd sang the melody of Gigi D\u2019Agostino\u2019s \u201cL\u2019Amour Toujours,\u201d a song banned in Germany because its lyrics are often twisted to \u201cAusl\u00e4nder raus,\u201d or \u201cOut with the foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Such messaging, of course, fits with <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/20\/world\/europe\/hungary-stop-soros-law.html\" title=\"\">Mr. Orban\u2019s worldview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soccer has long been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5558083\/2024\/06\/13\/hungary-viktor-orban-euro-2024\/\" title=\"\">a central plank of his politics<\/a>: Under his leadership, many of Hungary\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/04\/04\/business\/international\/the-village-stadium-a-symbol-of-power-for-hungarys-premier.html\" title=\"\">stadiums have been rebuilt<\/a>, millions of dollars have been invested in clubs in Hungarian-majority areas in neighboring countries, and many of the country\u2019s professional teams have been taken over by oligarchs close to his governing party, Fidesz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has also frequently offered his approval, tacit or otherwise, to the activities of the Carpathian Brigade, even as its actions have drawn fines and punishments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Hungarian authorities have, for example, persistently lobbied UEFA to stop Fare, the anti-discrimination group, from monitoring the national team\u2019s games and attempted to have some of the Carpathian Brigade\u2019s preferred symbols removed from Fare\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/farenet.org\/uploads\/files\/2021_Fare_guide_to_discriminatory_practices_UEFA_.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">guide on ultranationalist imagery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A spokesman for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/szubjektiv.org\/en\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Szubjektiv<\/a>, one of the few organizations in Hungary that works to promote diversity, suggested in an interview that the Carpathian Brigade\u2019s actions \u2014 even when they draw sanctions \u2014 benefit Mr. Orban because they feed into his sense that \u201cHungary is being oppressed by the rest of Europe,\u201d as well as providing a window into what Mr. Orban sees as the \u201cbrutal true nature\u201d of Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The spokesman asked that his name not be published because of the fear of reprisals from the Carpathian Brigade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That political backing is what differentiates the Carpathian Brigade from its rivals and imitators. The ultra groups that have coalesced around Albania, Croatia, Romania and the rest wear black shirts, too, but only because ultra groups all over Europe do. \u201cIt is a way of separating themselves from ordinary fans,\u201d said Juraj Vrdoljak, a Croatian writer and former ultra.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While Mr. Vrdoljak acknowledged that most ultras leaned to the right, politically \u2014 \u201cWe cannot pretend otherwise,\u201d he said \u2014 few are as willing as the Carpathian Brigade is to express such a noxious blend of racism, antisemitism and homophobia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vrdoljak said that most ultras rejected all forms of authority and oversight, and saw their country\u2019s soccer authorities, and frequently their governments, as \u201cthe main enemy.\u201d Last year, Croatia\u2019s largest ultra groups, which follow various club teams, came together and decided to allow their members to attend national team games for the first time since 2016. \u201cThey wanted a way to be visible, to make their message heard,\u201d Mr. Vrdoljak said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The same is true for Romania: During the country\u2019s first game in Euro 2024, its ultras unveiled a banner protesting their own persecution. Ultras who for years disdained the national team are present in Germany to \u201cshow people we need to be against the police and against the federation,\u201d said Cosmin, a Romanian ultra interviewed before that game in Munich who would give only his first name for fear of attracting the attention of the authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While Romania\u2019s ultra factions have resisted the attempts of the far-right presidential candidate George Simion to associate himself with them \u2014 \u201cMaybe he went to a few games, but he is not an ultra,\u201d Cosmin said \u2014 they have a defined nationalistic streak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This year, a game against Kosovo was almost abandoned because of persistent chants from Romania\u2019s ultras asserting that Kosovo belonged to Serbia and that \u201cBessarabia\u201d \u2014 its eastern neighbor Moldova \u2014 belonged to Romania.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Germany, Romanian supporters have displayed the flag of Greater Romania, a geographic construct that denies neighboring Moldova its sovereignty. At other matches, that sense of grievance over history or geography has emerged via standards championing Greater Albania, Greater Serbia and, of course, Greater Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those motifs have caused a headache for UEFA, which has spent much of the first two weeks of the tournament handing out fines to participating soccer federations as punishment for nationalist displays by their fans. (The bill for Albania\u2019s federation, for example, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplinary.uefa.com\/028e-1b2bcffe8d08-f6667059b887-1000\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">could soon surpass $100,000<\/a> after its supporters \u2014 already accused of nationalist chanting in two previous games \u2014 pushed the limits for the third straight match on Monday.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Powar said the surge in provocative expressions of nationalism was probably not an issue that soccer\u2019s authorities would be able to solve with financial penalties alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cRussia\u2019s war in Ukraine has created a real sense of jeopardy\u201d for countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Mr. Powar said. But just as significant, he said, is that it has offered encouragement, too, to those \u2014 like Mr. Orban\u2019s unofficial foot soldiers in the Carpathian Brigade \u2014 who see in it an opening to express their own territorial ambitions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFor a long time, this \u2018Greater Hungary\u2019 was something that even Orban did not talk about,\u201d said the spokesman for Szubjektiv. \u201cNow it is a bumper sticker you see on maybe one in every five cars. It is on the wall in lots of offices.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe ultras allow you to put on a black T-shirt and feel part of something,\u201d he added. \u201cWe will see it more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Andrew Das contributed reporting from D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/26\/world\/europe\/euros-ultras-hungary-carpathian-brigade.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The instructions were concise and clear. Those hoping to march to the stadium with Hungary\u2019s fans for their soccer team\u2019s first game of the European Championship were expected to report by 10 a.m. sharp, five hours before kickoff. A strict dress code would apply. Some could wear black. Others were to stick with red, white [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/25\/multimedia\/25soccer-hungary-01-gjkc\/25soccer-hungary-01-gjkc-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2836,5831,3749,7486,369,4759,19712,72611],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81802,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81800\/revisions\/81802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}