Deutsche Welle, in an article Youth from Serbia and the EU: Is there still faith in European integration? informed us that Anastasija expected more from the European Union, and that Konstatin, a student from Novi Sad, had a realisation that “It seems more and more clear to me that they [the European Union] don’t see us as equals, but above all as using us”. How are they using you? Are they forcing you to work in rundown Chinese harassment mills, like Mei Ta, HBIS, Zijin, or Linglong Tire?
BIRN reported last year that “Munich-based MAN Truck & Bus, a subsidiary of Volkswagen-owned commercial vehicle manufacturer Traton, has ended a tyre supply deal with the Serbian plant of Chinese Shandong Linglong Tire Co., citing allegations of ‘human rights violations’ in reports on working conditions at the plant, BIRN and Manager Magazin can reveal”.
Relja is expressing concern that if Serbia becomes a member, “a large number of citizens, especially young people, would immediately leave the country.” Gee, why would they leave such a wonderful place, filled with burning landfills, and with air polluted from Serbian coal plants “modernized” by the Chinese?
He also criticizes the attitude of the EU towards the events in Serbia. “I don’t like the fact that they present themselves as promoters of democracy, but are silent about the authoritarianism of the regime in Serbia.” As opposed to the authoritarianism of the protesters, I’m guessing.
Anastasija chimes in: “I don’t have enough information about what membership would really mean. And I expected more from the EU, especially when students went to Strasbourg and Brussels. It was a cry for help that was not recognized at all.” Yeah, that time the students cycled to France so they could flaunt the Wagner PMC paraphernalia around a Western European country. They also took some time to visit Serbian Orthodox churches abroad, they don’t have enough of that at home, which is probably also the EU’s fault.
And give the Council of Europe a lecture by a convicted felon Ratibor Trivunac.
Jovan from Novi Sad has no qualms – he is completely against European integration. The main reasons, as he states, are potential demographic losses, but also the status of Kosovo.
“Joining the EU would mean renouncing a part of our country’s territory, that is, recognizing the independence of Kosovo. That is unacceptable to me,” he says.
Is that so? Silly me, I thought this was about democracy and accountability and government repression and all that jazz. But you weren’t exactly coy about being a bunch of revanchists right from the start, have you?
Vuk, a student from Zrenjanin, cites the “Jadar” project as the key cause of the changed attitude of the population of Serbia towards the EU and says that he himself no longer knows what he thinks about European integration.
“I’m sure it had a lot of influence. One gets the impression that environmental damage is not important to the Union, but only profit,” he says.
So the pollution of the river Pek seen in this video, coming from Chinese-owned mines in Bor and Majdanpek, is also the EU’s fault?
Or the miners getting killed in Serbian and Chinese-owned mines here, that’s also the EU’s fault? A non-existent lithium extraction project is somehow gonna ruin your lives, but you’re cool with the local and BRICS-made problems we have now?
The Lithium Derangement Syndrome is now officially a thing.
Sputnik and Russia Today, both active in Serbia, are not doing interviews with protesters who are criticizing Vučić for attending the totalitarian gathering in Beijing and saying how they are disappointed in Putin and Xi for supporting the Serbian government. They couldn’t find any, because such criticisms are absent.
When they complain about the police and hooligan violence at the protests, do they ask themselves who provided them with a government of paternalist autocrats? The generation of their parents, who all these decades, stubbornly continued to vote for Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić.
Tomislav Nikolić, who was elected in 2012 to become the Serbian president, was nicknamed Toma the Diploma because he managed to graduate at a late stage in his life in 2007. and later got a master’s degree, and then managed to return to power on a populist platform of offering bread that will cost 3 dinars (just like those cheap MAGA eggs), protecting national interests, close ties with China and Russia, and fighting corruption. When the previous generation of the Serbian electorate voted for such fine gentlemen, I’m guessing they had the best interests of their children and grandchildren in their hearts.
Serbian people care much about traditional values, you know. Students and other youngsters can’t get into an argument with their folks about why they support Vučić, we gotta maintain the family harmony, so the kids can get that new iPhone and some Tommy Hilfiger, just all hip, cool, urban pro-European dudes and duddetes. They can’t get into an argument with the mamas and the papas and aunties and the uncles dishing out cash for such symbols of undying love of Kosovo and Russia, while paying for their college tuitions. Yes, public universities also cost money in Serbia, especially if you move to study. They can’t ask their seniors why they attend the counter-rallies organized by the ruling coalition. By the way, the Serbian Progressive Party has been busing people around the country ever since they came back to power thirteen years ago. They do it for fun.
They can’t ask them why they think that the convicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj is smart and funny for owning the libs all day long on government-affiliated TV channels (Serbian expression for libs derogatory term is drugosrbijanac – a “second Serbian”).
So they compromise, and they all happily hate the European Union.
This unironic meme of two sets of Serbian veterans, one pro-government and the other anti-government, whose author genuinely expects us to spot a difference between the two, is a good illustration of how bonkers Serbia is.
So, did you manage to spot the difference, other than the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabet being used to differentiate between them? Don’t waste time, there isn’t any.
Serbianism 