unexpectedly, Serbian has entered these days in a spiral of protests massive that already exceeds the requirement of end the violence in society, the ‘raison d’être’ that first brought discontent to the streets. Following mass shootings that left 18 dead this month, the direct confrontation is now against the Government of nationalist Aleksandar Vučić of unforeseen consequences.
The protestersalso backed by various parties of the serbian opposition, so far they have already carried out three street protests in a row. The next one is scheduled for this weekend, when they will once again parade through belgrade and others Serbian cities. They demand, among other requests, that several senior officials resign of the Government (among them, the Minister of the Interior and the head of the secret services) and that licenses are not renewed transmission two private television channels (out of six that exist nationwide) that promote violent content. They believe that these emissions contributed to creating the climate that led to the massacres.
The large number of people who have demonstrated so far, many with their families, has surprised the government, which has responded aggressively to the protest. Vučić has accused them of wanting politicize a tragedy and create “chaos and instability” in Serbia. Others have even gone so far as to suggest, without solid arguments, that behind the protests would be the American CIA. hints that have further enraged the protesterswho allege that the government is once again waving the victimhood and external enemy card, along with disinformation tactics from the 1990s, to discredit them.
fed up citizen
Analyst Aleksandra Tomanic, executive director of the European Fund for Balkans, recalls that the situation “is boiling” for a long time. “Vučić has literally taken control of the entire economy, society, politics, all spheres of life in the country. And now people are fed up, inflation has skyrocketed, there is more poverty…”, he affirms. “The external discourse is one thing and the internal discourse of Vučić is quite another. Internally, his narrative is disturbing, the media close to him feed fear, anxiety,to polarization and violence”, think. And he adds that this is also why “Serbia has not had elections free and fair in 10 years”.
of being a autocrat luck, among other things, Vucić he has been insistently accused by his detractors since he won the presidential elections in 2017. So, the protest stayed for several daysbetween accusations of electoral fraud against him Serbian leader. The same thing happened in 2018, after opposition representative Borko Stefanovic was attacked in the southern city of Krusevac. And again in 2021 and 2022l: people took to the streets to protest against exploitation of the lithium.
The difference, in the opinion of Savo Manojlović, is that now “we are many more, there are new faces and younger”. According to this activist, from the Kreni Promeni (Go and Change) platform, one of the main organizers of the calls, the current protest remember the great marches of the 90s against the deceased strong man of Serbia Slobodan Milosević (of which Vucić was a collaborator), later accused of war crimes. “People today want normality, democracy. For this reason, they want to break a system of corruption, dysfunctionality and partidocracy,” says Manojlović.
No EU solidarity
Another episode also reflects the tension in the country: the controversy over the muralsmade by hooligans and dedicated to the Russian president, Vladimir Putinand to the general ratko mladicconvicted of genocide in 2017. The first was damaged even before the killings, while the second, which is a short distance from the other in belgrade, was covered in the last days. And no one so far he has cleaned themas happened on other occasions.
Related news
Hence, neither the announcement of Vučić of what to want “disarm” the country (of the many weapons that remained in the hands of the citizens after the wars) would appease their spirits. Even more so that the authorities also announced a parallel march in the next few days in favor of Vucić.
The unknown is whether the critics’ protests will last or, as happened in previous cases, the protesters will end up getting tired and abandoning their public events. Two factors do not play in their favor: that the opposition this very divided and who have not yet received samples of solidarity of major players such as the European Union (EU). “Which also explains why sentiment towards the EU is falling in Serbia,” Tomanic observes.