Tag: Serbia

Vucic scored a major win on Saturday

With the alleged use of a non-lethal, yet efficient crowd dispersal method against the student protesters during the rally in Belgrade held on March 15th, the Serbian government is actually galvanizing its support among its electorate. After months of chest-pounding about how they were ready to fight Vucic's regime until the end, coming from the … Continue reading Vucic scored a major win on Saturday →

Stopping the USAID might be a good thing

Okay, okay, put down your pitchforks. Freezing the USAID might be a good thing - for the time being. Over here in Serbia, people gladly take foreign aid from developed countries like the US, but at the same time accuse the very same US and other collective Western countries of "colonialism", "exploitation", "imperialism", "subversion", and … Continue reading Stopping the USAID might be a good thing →

Lithium of discord

The Serbian protests against the lithium mining project proposed by Rio Tinto were not motivated by environmentalism but instead were aimed against the Serbian ruling kleptocratic coalition with an outpouring of anti-Western hysteria. Protesting against a non-existent, "neo-colonial" mining project is fashionable and safe over here. But it's an exercise in futility to try to damage President Vucic's standing by using his own rhetoric and methods.

The square circle logic of Serbian protests

Recent protests in Serbia, notably the general strike, aim to challenge the autocratic regime of President Vucic. However, the protests often lack effective impact as many businesses remain operational. Official demands focus on transparency and university funding, but protesters avoid directly calling for regime change due to socio-political taboos. The discontent reflects a deeper sense of national identity and responsibility.

Serbian Odious Party

Aleksandar Vucic and his big-tent coalition have been in power since 2012, and even if they did manage to steer the economy in the right direction (they didn't), maintain the rule of law, and run the government services efficiently (they don't), or even have the capacity to act civilly (out of the question), in most societies that have parliamentary and presidential elections they would have most likely overstay their welcome after twelve years in office. The Serbian government strengthens its support among the electorate by using physical violence, defamation, lies, and whining. But all this doesn't concern his voting base. To them, such behavior is considered assertive and irreverent, a mark of a strong leader who speaks truth to power and cares about traditional values like Family and Nationhood.

Vucic isn’t Assad

A good portion, if not the majority of the Serbian electorate never had a problem with the war crimes committed by the political parties that comprised the government of Slobodan Milošević. In fact, those same crimes are considered as proof of the patriotic virtues espoused by the current Serbian administration, led by Milošević's former minister of information, Aleksandar Vučić.