Apolitical political protests in Serbia might actually be prolonging the agonizing, autocratic rule of our local kakistocracy.
Last Friday, Serbia had a general strike, a major event in its months-long protests. The general strike consisted of people boycotting shopping, drinking, or eating out, and the companies supporting the protesters having a day off.
Yup. The final nail has been driven into the coffin of Vucic’s regime by denying me service in not one, not two, but three kiosk booths in Belgrade’s Mirijevo district, where I wanted to buy cigarettes (yes, people in Serbia smoke, deal with it). So I had to go to a grocery shop. Take that, Vucic!
Pretty much everything was open for business, barbers and hairstylists, bakeries (which basically sell what should be considered Serbian fast food consisting of pastries), car mechanics, you name it, and those cafes we were supposed to boycott were full, supermarkets as well. No manufacturing companies stopped production.
While the roadblocks consisting of student protesters are a chore to navigate while driving or taking public transport, which should be all too familiar to all humans on planet Earth since countries that never experienced some sort of rallies or civil unrest are rare, there was no full blockade of the country, as some imply. And not that it would matter to the Serbian government, considering how Vucic is well-known for his perpetual touring of the country that jams entire towns and cities with very public and very crowded displays of love for our Supreme Commander. Of course, people who come to Vucic’s rallies are not coerced or paid to do it, not at all, and they are certainly not packed into buses in some other part of the country, or even from Bosnia and Kosovo, and then brought to whatever rally he’s having to simply adore him. Yes, you guessed it, Vucic had a rally on Friday, in the southern city of Jagodina, with adoring fans bused from all over the Serbian World.
Let me make this absolutely clear, for those of you in the back: The Serbian government doesn’t care if protests actually blockade the entire country, because the Serbian government keeps blockading the country all the time, for fun.
But wait, there’s more to come. The next general strike will be held on February 24th, with the same “don’t do shopping and caffeine” rules. Is this exciting or what?!
Foto: CROPIX
And the demands are still not met.
In a report from Deutsche Welle, Ljubica Oparnica, a professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Novi Sad, said, “Chaos, crime, and the rule of ignorance and incompetence — it’s unbearable to watch,”. She credits the students with restoring her faith that change is possible.
“I am truly fascinated by the way students are working together,” she said. “Their solidarity is a fortress that cannot be breached. If we all share the same vision — and here it is clear that we all want a new system, a new and different era — this regime stands no chance.”
So the protesters demand a regime change? Well, yes, but no.
Official demands from the protesters are:
- Making the documentation about the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station publicly available
- Dismissal of the criminal charges against all students arrested during the protests
- Prosecuting the people responsible for attacks against the students and professors, and the dismissal of those responsible for the attacks from public office
- Increasing the state budgetary funds used for university education by 20 percent
Yeah, a new era is coming, all right, the regime is toast. They’ll be gaslighted into oblivion with transparency and budget spending.
Of course, students would never ask openly for a regime change. That would be against the Serbian official unofficial national ideology. See, politics here, as in most countries, is regarded as dirty and corrupt. And the protesters wish to remain unsullied (no, not like in the Game of Thrones). So, making a political demand like ousting the government is a big no-no, all the while wink-winking at everyone how they want the government out. That’s why political leaders from the opposition parties, which both sides tend to call “yellow thieves”, are not allowed to participate, so they don’t “hijack the protests”. Vucic’s successful smear campaign, coupled with the anti-liberal nastiness and cowardice of the Serbian general public, made the moderate parties that made up governments from 2000. to 2012. look “treasonous” and toxic to be associated with them.
And then there’s…stuff like this:
Here is the original LinkedIn post.
Guilt-tripping Europe by bugging its public and governments with such statements, which originate from both Serbia and abroad, is nothing new. The idea that Western governments somehow hold a remote control with which they boss around autocrats and that they should somehow get rid of them but don’t want to is also nothing new, but in the case of Serbia, this makes for a particularly lazy and annoying feature of this whole nothingburger.
See, it’s a common theme in Serbian political discourse to consider themselves physically beautiful, extremely smart, and successful, but as underachievers as a nation. In their minds, mostly because of some historical wrongs they suffered from European nations, the US, and local traitors. So they need to feel important and become front-page news all the time so our bruised national ego will be stroked. No amount of attention is ever enough.
When the protests were supported by people outside Serbia on social media, a bunch of angry Serbs would blast them in the comments about how we don’t need their support and don’t want to be associated with them because the “West hates us”, “we want to be independent” and “they don’t understand anything about Serbia, so sod off”.
Jumping around and yelling “Look at me, look at me!” while then brushing off the very same people whose attention you want is a standard childish stunt we all recognize and tend to run away from.
This particular instance of Serbian protests is just FoMO, Fear of Missing Out, which is a sense of not wanting to miss out on a popular social gathering and then mingle with all the cool people doing the cool thing, so you have stuff to share on social networks and be a Person of Coolness.
All the while, someone else will remove our ruling craptastic kleptocracy which we like totally didn’t produce and elect. In Serbia, everything is always someone else’s fault and someone else’s trash to pick up.
Serbianism 