The aim of the conference is to answer the question of how the “contested” heritage of totalitarian/authoritarian systems is used and often abused in political narratives by populist far-right movements and political parties in Southern and Central-Eastern Europe.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:

• What are the past and present societal experiences of totalitarian/authoritarian regimes - Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Franco, Hitler, Horthy, Tito - in relation to the respective symbolic landscape of contested authoritarian lieux de memoire from a comparative perspective (normative issues)?
• What is the nature of the interplay between “working through the past” and the policy of historical revisionism?
• Can reckoning with the memory of the past affect the legitimacy of far-right groups on the political scene?

DEBATE CONTOUR:

• What is the nature of the coexistence between different, sometimes mutually exclusive, narratives about lieux de memoire in post-totalitarian societies?
• What is behind the negotiation of the meaning of memorial sites by various social entities/groups and claiming the exclusive rights to make use of these lieux de memoire? ▪ How is the history of contested heritage sites taught at different levels of education/How are they presented in school textbooks?