“To Serbia’s Minister of Information, Boris Bratina, who stated that Croats must pay for crimes with territory just like Ukrainians, we propose that he use his own country’s territory for his unwise verbal exercises. As the Ukrainian proverb goes, a fly won’t enter a closed mouth,” was the response in an X post by Heorhii Tykhyi, the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In an interview with the Serbian TV channel Informer, Bratina claimed that Croatia should be punished in some way for its role in World War I and, in particular, World War II, as well as since the early 1990s.
In this context, he added that Croats, like Ukrainians, should pay for this with territory.
Here’s Mr. Bratina’s interview in question:
While you might think that this is some sort of international incident, it is actually just another day at the crazy Serbian office.
It is only a glimpse into the local political discourse that has been like this for the last four decades, and that has already left numerous dead, maimed, and displaced in an effort to “punish Croatia”. And the responsibility for Mr. Bratina’s words lies squarely on the electorate that keeps voting for his political organization.
The Ukrainian MFA response was nothing short of brilliant. Yes, Serbia was cut down to a more manageable size after its first attempt at punishing its neighbours for the crime of existing, just like Russia and its Global South mercenaries are now getting a sound trashing by the intelligent and courageous Ukrainian defenders.
But the first defeat of Serbian revanchism back in the 1990s wasn’t enough for the Celestial People of Serbia. Oh, no.
One of the axioms of the opposition talking points here is that Vučić & Co. deservedly returned to power in 2012, because the centrist parties during the 2001-2012 period “ruined Serbia” and “betrayed our national interests”.
This imaginary ruination is that the enterprises were sold off to tycoons for a pittance or destroyed on the behest of the European Union, along with agriculture and animal husbandry. See, the EU was so envious of the dilapidated socialist ruins that bankrupted while we were “punishing” Croatia the first time, and the local myth about Serbia, the land of the uncorrupt peasants, working hard to bring us yummy food and keep Serbia the green oasis of Europe, simply won’t shut up and die already.
The national interests that were betrayed were the extradition of our “heroes” to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague, such as Ratko Mladić, who is often mentioned in local media that keep writing sob pieces about his poor, poor health, the little darling.
In the minds of the electorate, the ruination came after the wars were over and Milošević was overthrown.
These kinds of statements were exactly what Bratina and the like were elected for. This wasn’t an aberration – it’s a drop in the ocean of such nonsense that we’ve been subjected to ever since the 1980s.
It is perfectly socially acceptable here to hold such views, steeped deeply in identity politics, regardless of the fact that such ideologies brought nothing but ruin the first time.
Speaking to N1, “Mufti of Serbia’s Sandzak region, Muhamed Demirovic said that the struggle of the students from Novi Pazar showed that Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Bosniaks, and Serbs have joined forces and proved they can work together.“
Exactly. That’s the primary designation in this country – ethnicity and religion. Nothing else matters. God forbid it extends above the silly parochialism of imaginary friends in the sky and what particular traditional outfit you wear. Tribalism is considered a “true democracy”. For example, no atheists are allowed, being a non-believer is suspicious. If you don’t wanna stick a šajkača or a fez on your head, you must be one of those dirty pro-EU people who destroyed our magnificent agriculture.
That’s why we deservedly ended up with the champions of reactionary tribalism in power, and the best idea we came up with is to try and replace them with the next, improved batch of those, upgraded with a few new features.
Such as newspeak.
Philological society “Reči” (Words), which is, like totally, the authoritative body on how to speak Serbian properly, announced that the word of the year is “students” and that the lieword of the year is “students who want to study” (a group of pro-government student counter-protesters). The new word of the year is “ćaci” (a derogatory expression denoting government supporters). Orwell must be smiling from heaven upon the philologists, if his ghost can stomach the fact that “students who want to study” is not a word, but a syntagma. But hey, education is losers, right? What’s important is labeling people, so you can wheat out the traitors more easily when the time comes.
And the times are coming.
Now that the student movement has been thoroughly incorporated into the patriotic opposition, with the public intellectuals slavishly attached to them, with the parallel media also built and in place, and watchdogs who got the proper instructions to keep the non-insane people at bay so they don’t ruin The Non-Revolution, Serbia can continue on its glorious stride towards Greatness, under a new and improved management.
Serbianism 