March Madness is upon us, so the Serbian-language infosphere (N1, DW, non-government portals) indulges in silly local narcissism: the first anniversary of the greatest protests in Serbia’s history.
If you don’t count all those other “greatest protests in the history of Serbia” since Gazimestan and onwards.
In this country, being modest, average, or plain normal simply won’t do. Everything must be The Greatest Ever.
The same goes for the March 15th protests that were marked by the use of the LRAD sonic weapon. The commentariat won’t shut up about it, because it gives them something to reinforce the national victimhood narrative.
“The suffering Serbian people” is one of the most common political tropes of the post-Yugoslav era. Serbs suffered under everything and everyone – Ottomans, Germans, Austria-Hungary, Albanians, Croats, Muslims, Catholics, communists, Jews, NATO, EU, cult members corrupting our youth, the Klingon Empire, you name it.
So now they “suffer” under Vučić, whom they reelected so he can “fight corruption”, just like he “fought corruption” the first time around.
On the 20th anniversary of Milošević’s death, the supposedly opposition N1 media portal decided to place an unfiltered interview with his grandson, who now serves as an MP of Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia.
Yay, nepotism. And not one word about the fact that gramps died during his war crimes tribunal trial. The atrocity of the 90s wars is now referred to in the Serbian infosphere as “mistakes”.
There’s a good reason why N1 is now called Z1 by the non-nationalist Serbian people.
It’s March, so everything goes, and our pundits, media, and online commentariat are just getting warmed up. The 12th of March marked 23 years since the assassination of PM Zoran Đinđić, killed by the rogue paramilitary arm of the secret police, in cahoots with local organized crime. So we will be hearing an endless tirade of the “third bullet” conspiracy theory pushing the line that Đinđić’s murder was a Western plot, aided by the local gangsters, who, in the minds of the nationalists, worked together with the post-government to “ruin Serbia”. With the anniversary of the bombing also coming up, the vile pro-war agitprop is also being pumped up by the entire political spectrum, wailing over Serbia that was bombed in violation of international law. As if the Serbian tribal wars of conquest from the 1990s were somehow lege artis.
But three extraordinary events have happened with a number of local elections approaching in Serbia, which may not be signs of decrazyfication of our politics, but sure are refreshing.
▪️ Two Bosnian citizens from Republika Srpska were beaten up by the locals in the Bajina Bašta municipality, after they discovered that the two ethnic Serbs from across the Drina river came to register to vote in local elections that were to be held on March 29th. This is the first reported incident in which someone physically stood up to the entitled election tourists from near abroad.
▪️ The township of Mrčajevci (a small town known as the birthplace of a famous folk singer Miroslav Ilić) politely asked the protesting dairy farmers to stop blockading their roads and take their grievance elsewhere, because it is hurting their livelihoods and everyday life. For a local community to efficiently send off an entitled business group asking for special privileges is completely unheard of – until now. The farmer protests have, in their own words, ended, and it still remains to be seen if the silly protectionist measures that they demanded will be employed.
▪️ The media outlet N1 criticized the student activists meddling in the affairs of local political coalitions being set up before the coming municipal elections. While some individuals and a good portion of the netizens have already criticized the student popular front for its destructive, divisive, yet ineffective alt-right politics, this is the first time that their chief media support has uttered a word against such practices.
▪️ Anyways, a tried and tested election tactic of the ruling coalition will most likely be employed, yet again – wait for the protests to subside, just like they did the last time in 2023/2024 (done) and have snap national elections during the time of the year when bad weather is still common (rain, snow, fog, the cold). Lower turnout always favors the radicals, oops, I mean progressives.
So what will the most likely outcome of such elections be?
The Swedish V-Dem Institute made a bigly discovery in its latest report on Democracy that Serbia ranked 112 of the 179 countries it studied and is considered an electoral autocracy state.
Well, duh.
Humans of planet Earth: that is exactly what the electorate in Serbia wants, unfortunately.
The whole big idea of Mr. and Mrs. Average here is that paternalism and statism provide the amenities, the basic security, and the national and personal fulfilment and prestige, the same or even superior to a democracy.
Face it, folks – some nations out there are like this. Stop wasting your time with them, don’t send them any financial aid, and don’t let them into the EU or other international organizations.
For some further reading, I recommend the excellent “There is No Democracy in Serbia, nor is it Desirable” publication by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy.
A graffiti saying: We don’t serve democracy. Have something from the grill menu, instead.
Serbianism 