THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAXON IDENTITY BY THE «FREE SAXONS» PARTY

The present article is an examination of the peculiarities of the constructed Saxon identity, which is formed by the regional German party «Free Saxons». The relevance of this study is determined by the return of the issues of regional identity and separatist sentiments into the European political discourse against the background of the observed «right turn». To achieve this goal, the authors highlight the key components of Saxon identity, compare it with the narratives of parties from other regions of Europe, in particular the Flemish Interest and Sinn Fein, and analyse the competitiveness of the party in question in the current party-political landscape of Saxony. The authors conclude that the identity created by the party’s activists is based on the cultivation of certain phenomena of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the GDR, while being much more multifaceted and elaborated than those of the other highlighted parties. The success of the Free Saxons at the regional level is likely, but it can only be possible if the party revises some components of its ideology.