Brerore (Aureole)

Brerore is an Albanian nationalistic movement created in 2018. Its members are anonymous. There is no public display of any hierarchy among them and no public leader. The only names that can be related to the group are those of contributors to their webpage “brerore.al”, and people who are active in sharing their posts on social media. Some of the profiles used are fake and the main character is someone who calls himself “Faust”; he is the main author in the webpage and appears as editor of several translations.

They claim to be National Socialist, fascist, anti-communist and anti-globalist and there are several posts critical of the liberal Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist George Soros. They also praise, however, several historical figures of Albanian nationalism who are either anti-fascist or leftist. They also praise the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, and the so-called “Armata Kombetare Shqiptare” (Albanian National Army), a paramilitary group active in the early 2000s

The number of members is not clear but there are photographs of five to ten young men holding Brerore banners. Their Telegram channel has 120 subscribers, which can be seen as a base for the most loyal followers. They have two Facebook pages, the main one with around 5,500 followers, and an Instagram page of 1,550 followers. They also use a network of several Facebook groups, usually with some Albanian nationalism content, which is helping them to grow their followers.

The group is little known outside their own circle. There is no mention of any acts of violence or their involvement in anything of the like, but they have taken part in several protests and members advocate the use of force to change the political system. For now, the group’s main activity outside social media seems to be putting up stickers with their logo in public spaces in Albania and Kosovo.