After the meeting with the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated “I emphasized that enlargement is a whole of society process. This is not possible without strong civil society and independent media. It is the best way forward.” Well, Serbia has no civil society and independent media that supports the EU ascension process.
I apologize for linking posts from the Artist Formerly Known As Twitter because Serbian (un)civil society still uses the X cesspool considering how Elon Musk holds a celebrity status here, because he is a rich far-right drug addict, which makes him a popular content creator and a Person of Awesomeness in our neck of the woods.
The angry comments coming from Serbian social media users decrying EU hypocrisy and alleged support for our kakistocracy led by the Supreme Commander are coming from the same people who have no problem with the fact that both sides of the Serbian political aisle hold deeply anti-democratic and anti-European views. The most common complaint, aimed at the EU as if somehow this is their fault, is about how the police used an illegal sonic or energy weapon, although all these concerned citizens were cool with the police using that same weapon on migrants.
In the mind of an everyday Serbian person, everything that happens here or abroad tends to be explained by oversimplified yet completely erroneous conspiracy theories. One of them being that our government is installed and remote-controlled by the Collective West. Being the populists that they are, even the more liberal part of our public tends to push this line because they don’t want to be seen as “traitors to the cause” by the predominant, more muscular, nationalistic part of the protesters.
So, do Serbian people even want EU membership?
Let’s ask them where their loyalties lie:
Dr Aleksandar Mitić Scientific, associate at the Institute for International Politics and Economy writes in an article for Serbian Monitor titled Serbia’s compass not pointed at the EU about the results of a public opinion poll conducted as part of the scientific project “Compass – Contribution to Modern Partnerships: Assessing Serbia’s Relations with the EU and China”.
When asked about foreign leaders’ attitudes towards Serbia, the most positively rated was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (54.5 percent positive, 34.1 percent neutral), with Hungary also being perceived as Serbia’s closest ally in the region (according to 37.1 percent of respondents, ahead of Romania at 26.4 percent). The second most positively viewed leader was Russian President Vladimir Putin (45.6 percent positive, 36.9 percent neutral), whose country, according to the survey, contributes the most to defending Serbia’s national interests and territorial integrity (45.3 percent of respondents ranked Russia first, compared to 18.4 percent for the EU and 14.8 percent for China). In third place was Chinese President Xi Jinping (44.8 percent positive, 41.5 percent neutral), with China receiving the highest ratings for political and economic cooperation with Serbia over the past decade.
The most popular foreign leaders in Serbia are autocrats and illiberal democrats such as Orban.
When combining the “very good” and “good” ratings regarding cooperation with Serbia over the past decade, China holds an 18 percent advantage over the EU (53.5 percent compared to 35.3 percent).
For most respondents (38 percent), the European Union is also seen as an “important economic partner, but one that imposes unacceptable political conditions, while some of the values it promotes are problematic.” For 24.5 percent, EU membership is “absolutely” a “strategic foreign policy goal,” whereas 32.2 percent believe it is “not at all” a goal. When asked whether Serbia, as an EU candidate, should align itself with sanctions against the Russian Federation, two-thirds of respondents (66.1 percent) said no, while just over a quarter (27.2 percent) answered yes.
Serbians prefer China and Russia over the European Union.
So what’s there for the EU to support?
What we have in Serbia is two sets of authoritarians bickering over who gets to be the next Dear Leader, or will we simply keep the one we have now. This isn’t some pro-democratic revolution, it’s a nationwide HR meeting gone awry.
In an article by Politico titled EU must be more ‘transactional,’ top diplomat says, Kaja Kallas, the Vice-President of the European Commission, had this to say:
“The question is whether the EU should become transactional too. In many ways it is time we should,” the European commissioner told the bloc’s 145 ambassadors at a conference in Brussels Monday.
“At this historical juncture we need to be honest and accept we can’t that we cannot expect the same from others as we do with our member states or allies. Every country’s historical and cultural background is different.”
“We need to put the European flag up more,” Kallas said. “We are the predictable partner, we are the reliable partner, but we are often taken for granted. And we shouldn’t [be],” she added.
EU shouldn’t be taken for granted or taken for a ride by a bunch of parochial right-wingers from Europe’s most polluted country. If Serbian people profess their love for BRICS and the Orbans of this world, they can’t expect much fuss coming from Brussels concerning our internal problems. The very same people in Serbia who keep droning about sovereignty and how they don’t accept EU values are asking the EU’s help to topple an unpopular autocrat, all the while informing urbi et orbi that they will continue in his footsteps.
Maybe they should pray for help to Lord Bebo, a known Russian disinfo peddler who has a lot of nice things to say about Serbian protests.
Notice the same flag among the Russian troops in Ukraine:
Serbianism 