For the last month, across much of the continent, the Euros have been a space of public revelry and political messaging. Huge carnivalesque crowds have gathered from Berlin to Amsterdam, from Copenhagen to Tbilisi. In the latter, where bitter divisions over Georgia’s relationship to Russia and the EU have been raging, both sides have used the national team’s amazing run as a platform. Many members of the squad have indicated their opposition to the current government and its pro-Russian sentiments on social media, while fans chanted, “Putin is a dickhead” at their game against Turkey. By the same token, the ruling party, Georgian Dream, has sought to co-opt footballing success, promising huge rewards to the squad.
In the stadiums in Germany, right-wing nationalist ultras have displayed the flags and borders of a Greater Albania (including Kosovo), a Greater Serbia (also including Kosovo) and a Greater Romania, while the black-shirted phalanx of the Hungarian Carpathian Brigade, avatars of Orbán’s nativist populism, have been an aggressive presence at their games. By contrast, the French squad, overwhelmingly with migrant heritage, have been very public in their rejection of the far right, calling on the public not to vote for extremists in the country’s snap general election.
