“It’s scandalous how Berlin is ignoring the protests in Serbia”, says German political scientist Alexander Rotert. In an article published by the Berliner Zeitung, Rotert writes “No ‘foreigners’ will overthrow Vucic; on the contrary, Berlin and Brussels fatally see him as an ‘anchor of stability’ in the region,”. According to Rottert, the lithium mining project supported by Germany and the EU was given primacy “even though Serbia does not comply with EU sanctions against Russia,” making it “Moscow’s economic lifeline in Europe.” The author goes on to list Serbian government’s increasingly authoritarian and nationalist policies, such as:

• preparing to pass the law on foreign agents
• using spyware against activists and journalists
• their critics receiving death threats
• disruptive and aggressive actions against Bosnia
• disruptive and aggressive actions against Kosovo and KFOR
• close ties to Milorad Dodik, Bosnian Serb leader

Rottert adds that in December, Scholz hosted Vučić, on the same day that Vučić reiterated that he was being overthrown in Serbia from the outside, from the West, and that he would not serve foreigners.

“It’s strange when he, who receives billions of euros in support from the EU and is courted in Berlin like few others, gets involved in these conspiracy theories,” says Rotert.

He concludes that “Vucic and Dodik know they can do whatever they want, as long as the lithium project lasts,” and that the lack of solidarity with Serbian civil society is a “historical mistake.”

Meanwhile, in reality, the Serbian government and the media affiliated with it, keep painting the protests as a Western-backed “colored revolution“, a page taken from the Russian propaganda playbook.

The protesters, on the other hand, accuse the Western nations of placing, or at least keeping Vucic in power so he could serve their interests.

Both camps also use accusations of being a Western-backed agent as a smear campaign tool. It is a common belief among the Serbian population that the US, EU, NATO, and governments affiliated with them either appoint Serbian authorities through machinations or at least need to give a blessing of sorts for them to be elected and remain in power, in exchange for doing their bidding.

It is also a coping mechanism. Serbian society can’t deal with the fact that it has produced a country that Serbian people themselves consider dysfunctional and impoverished, so they look for a foreign cause. They also couldn’t deal with the failure of the revanchist Yugoslav wars, which ended in Serbian defeats, twice with NATO helping their adversaries, first in Bosnia in 1995, and then in Kosovo in 1999.

The majority of people in both camps are supportive of the Russian government, believe that Kosovo should be returned to Serbia, by force if necessary, and would be very dismissive of Mr. Rotert’s support, considering how anyone in Serbia holding views such as his is regarded at worst as a traitor, toxic, and to be avoided at best.

Western governments, Berlin included, are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

If they publicly support either side, their opponents will undoubtedly accuse them of imperialism and meddling in Serbian internal affairs.

If they simply continue business as usual, they will be accused, by both Serbian kakistocracy and the wide front protesting against it, of tacitly supporting the other side.

The best course of action for Westerners is to keep ignoring self-centered paranoid delusions that permeate Serbian political discourse and stew in our own juices.