‘Provincial national egoism’ in the ‘experimental Euro-garden’: Milan Rakovac, László Végel, and reimagining Europe in Istria and Vojvodina

Since the 1980s, politicians and intellectuals in the Yugoslav regions of Istria and Vojvodina have revived narratives of a culturally diverse and hybrid Europe, drawing on imperial images that portrayed both regions as ‘Europe in miniature’ and cultivating a pro-Habsburg, occasionally nostalgic, remembrance culture. Communities expelled or decimated after 1945 returned in literature and political discourse as symbols of ‘old Europe’. By contrast, the Yugoslav model of multiculturalism gradually lost its appeal. In the 1990s, many authors criticised the rise of nationalism, described by Milan Rakovac as ‘provincial national egoism’, while reimagining both regions as historically more progressive and multicultural than the postnational Europe that was supposed to emerge. ‘Our Germans’ and ‘our Italians’ became emblematic of efforts to affirm both regions’ place in Europe. This article analyses these dynamics through the contrasting perspectives of Milan Rakovac from Istria and László Végel from Vojvodina as a productive lens for comparison.