So far, the ruling party and the European Serbia centrists have managed not just to run rings around the Student Ticket candidates – they danced the flamenco on their vacuous heads.
Take, for example, last night’s OKO show (Radio Television of Serbia, the public broadcaster), where the pro-government podcaster and philosopher Andrea Jovanović managed to steal the show from historian Srđan Cvetković (Student list supporter).
While Cvetković entangled himself trying to make the “ćacilend” (stoogeville) government supporter tent camp in downtown Belgrade a topic, Jovanović got her message across. As usual, the student supporters fell into the trap of their own making – they think that the entire electorate cares about the same topics they push as a priority. The demographics that watch the public broadcaster that remains the most popular TV station in Serbia, the competition from the pro-government, privately owned TV Pink notwithstanding, don’t care much about ćacilend.
People who make up the RTS audience are mostly Vučić supporters, so the Student Ticket, being the copycat of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), has been trying to woo them from the start of the protests in autumn of 2024.
Vučić supporters, the weirdly conservative “might makes right, everyone steals” crowd, already consider politics a three-ring circus. So what if there is a tent camp parked in front of the People’s Assembly (the parliament), they say. What they wanna know is how much food will cost, and whether pensions and salaries will increase. Andrea Jovanović is right: “With faith in God and Serbian pensioners”. She’s also right about the persistent myth of the “neutrals”, the supposedly clueless enablers of Vučić, who are uninterested in politics – they don’t exist, and she’s right.
The student ticket is filled with people like Cvetković, who are genuinely detached from the reality of Serbia. His chief interest, for example, is promoting historical revisionism – not exactly a hot topic when it comes to the ideological mishmash of the Serbian electorate. Serbian voters made up their minds about the outcome of World War II back in the 1980s – they hate it, they want it changed.
Yes, Serbia is dominantly alt/hard-right, statist, and conservative. That doesn’t mean common folks will jump into more reactionary policies on a whim, coming from radicalized youth and their frustrated elderly leaders.
They would prefer the status quo – that’s why Vučić’s message about “preserving stability” is an effective slogan. A good portion of the population is in favor of the ruling party out of fear of escalation of social unrest or even a civil war.
That is the perception of the electorate, especially those outside Belgrade. It doesn’t matter whether it’s grounded in facts or not, voters here don’t exactly operate on facts.
The iconography present at student rallies – the giant crosses, Serbian national attires and Novi Pazar young women clad in hijabs is NOT signalizing neither ethnic harmony or patriotism being reclaimed away from the ruling party. “Regime” didn’t bring out šajkače and hijabs to student rallies – students did.
They are the ones insisting on patriotic and identity themes, and get surprised when they find out that the SNS wields those issues way better than the students do. An alliance of convenience between reactionary groups in Serbia, dissatisfied that the ruling Progressives aren’t even crazier than they already are.
So when the divisive personas such as outspokenly pro-Russian university professor Milo Lompar were left out of the Student election ticket, while making a very public disengagement, the opposition public sighed some relief…Only for the students to bring out even more divisive and nationalistic people to the front, such as foul-mouthed Twitter-warrior Nemanja Karović, whose TV appearance about how the student movement will be “teaching” opposition politicians how to dance the kolo (Serbian traditional circle dance) was interpreted as yet another sign of a Tehran 1979-styled ethno-theocratic revolution around the corner.
“Preserving stability” is a line that all autocratic/totalitarian governments tend to push – the Kremlin uses it all the time, why would their counterparts in Serbia be any different, especially with Vučić’s chief opponents providing so much media ammo for the ruling party to use?
The additional delusion of the anti-government bloc is that the “ćaci” (a derogatory term for Vučić supporters) are dumb. Uneducated, crass, just like their predecessors from the Serbian Radical Party of Vučić’s former boss, Vojislav Šešelj. Well, after the change of power in 2012, the career politicians from the previous government of the centrist Democratic Party of then-president Boris Tadić were welcomed into Vučić’s fold.
With people like Dragan Šutanovac and Gordana Čomić, to name a few, leaving the Democrats and joining the Progressives, the IQ of the notoriously anti-intellectual nationalists sharply increased, and the public perception of the Progressives improved.
“Um caruje, snaga klade valja” – a Serbian proverb. It translates as “The mind reigns, the strength rolls the logs”. Yes, both the intellect and physical prowess impress people. The electorate was in awe of competent, well-disciplined riot cops dispersing protests with ease and had little sympathy for claims of police brutality. The callous Serbian society expects that if someone gets into a fight, they should hold their ground and doesn’t respect what they consider losers.
Battles of the wits evoke similar sentiments – erudition is respected, mincing words and coming off as uneducated are frowned upon. And holding your ground in debates is also respected. So when the student ticket representative doesn’t show up at a public broadcaster TV panel, leaving an empty chair, as they did a few nights ago, the pro-EU candidate, a Socialist Party minister, and an SNS candidate did not shed any tears over the matter – more time for them to present their case.
The dissident mentality of Serbian politics came up with a strange notion of boycotts – if you appear in pro-government media, you are branded as some sort of a heretic who “gives legitimacy” to “dictatorship”. The same logic drove the unsuccessful boycotts of the parliamentary elections of 2020 and parliament sessions. Face it – anti-politics is a failure. What does warm the hearts and keeps up the spirits of opposition voters are scenes like these – Jasna Matić (European Serbia) putting Marina Raguš (ruling party) in her place after the latter tried to cut in while Matić was talking.
“Ko se čuva i Bog ga čuva” – The Lord keeps and protects those who protect themselves, a Serbian proverb.
Standing your ground and fighting is always better than not showing up and performing nightly mass prayer sessions instead, as students keep doing.
[CAPTION: Protests in front of Children’s Cultural Centre of Belgrade with a banner saying “Radio-Television of Students”]
Originally published on Serbianism Substack.
