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During the first shockwave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of infection was inaccurately touted as "the great equaliser". However, the virus' rapid spread and the state of emergency accelerated the magnitude of pre-existing inequalities by taking a heavy toll on already marginalised, exploited and extremely poor segments of societies. Focussing on sub-national contexts in Bulgaria and Kosovo, this article demonstrates how Bulgarian Roma and Kosovo Serbs were not only hit the hardest by the introduction of ad hoc lockdowns and curfews, respectively, but also how disciplinary mechanisms of control and surveillance were embedded in public methods and cultural policies of scapegoating and ascribing images of societal irresponsibility and backwardness upon these two minority groups. Med prvim valom pandemije Covid-19 je bilo tveganje okužbe napačno predstavljano kot "veliki izenačevalec". Vendar sta hitro širjenje virusa in izredno stanje povečala visoko stopnjo že obstoječih neenakosti, saj so najvišjo ceno plačali tisti segmenti družb, ki so bili že prej na obrobju, izkoriščani in skrajno revni. V članku se osredotočimo na podnacionalna konteksta v Bolgariji in na Kosovu in prikažemo, kako sta bolgarske Rome in kosovske Srbe ne le najtežje prizadeli vpeljava ad hoc splošnih karanten v prvem primeru in policijskih ur v drugem, temveč tudi, kako so tema manjšinskima skupnostma pripisovali podobe družbene neodgovornosti in zaostalosti z disciplinskimi mehanizmi nadzorovanja in opazovanja, umeščenimi v javne metode in kulturne politike iskanja grešnih kozlov.

During the first shockwave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of infection was inaccurately touted as ‘the great equaliser’. However, the virus’ rapid spread and the state of emergency accelerated the magnitude of pre-existing inequalities by taking a heavy toll on already marginalised, exploited and extremely poor segments of societies. Focussing on sub-national contexts in Bulgaria and Kosovo, this article demonstrates how Bulgarian Roma and Kosovo Serbs were not only hit the hardest by the introduction of ad hoc lockdowns and curfews, respectively, but also how disciplinary mechanisms of control and surveillance were embedded in public methods and cultural policies of scapegoating and ascribing images of societal irresponsibility and backwardness upon these two minority groups. Keywords: Bulgaria; Kosovo; minority groups; pandemic; ad hoc restrictions; stigmatisation