The Protests in Belgrade – an outpouring of collective frustration

Last night’s outburst of collective rage revealed that there is such a thing as a breaking point, even in Serbia. While you’re reading this article, our country’s propaganda machinery is probably already very busy with the sudden protest in Belgrade, which briefly broke through into the halls of Serbia’s House of Parliament.

While its focus will certainly be on the violence of the protesters, as well as their clashes with police forces, with the goal of presenting the events of last night as a failed attempt at a violent coup, the main twist will be naming the reintroduction of a curfew as the reason for the protests’ eruption. The protesters will be shown to be mere marionettes, their strings pulled by the opposition – misguided souls who are battling reasonable protective measures against Covid-19, just because they don’t feel like sitting at home.

That’s simply not the truth.

Last night’s protests were a direct consequence of yesterday’s arrogant, verging on theatrical, press conference given by Vučić, during which he, in addition to announcing the curfew’s return on Belgrade’s territory, delivered another serving of blame for the pandemic to the public. That is the reason.

The cause of the protests is the fact that the state obviously no longer holds any control over the pandemic, and the only control it’s concerned with now is damage control, in response to the decisions made by Serbia’s executive government and its crisis staff. The measures that the state introduced, then changed, then cancelled, only to return them, turned out to be shots in the dark, motivated mainly by short-term political results, instead of the preservation of the health and lives of Serbia’s citizens.

„Dad, this is for you.“

All of the above is of no interest to the president, who is busy reprising his role from March in the press conference melodrama, in which he plays the only reasonable person around, determined to bring his irrational nation to its senses, but he loses his resolve in the end and just slaps us in the face with our guilt for everything that’s currently happening to us.

Of course that caused a revolt. Some are angry because, for the last four months, they’ve only left the house when they absolutely had to, all the while disinfecting both their home, and everything that entered it, not hanging out with their friends, and wearing a mask, and now they’re being told they’ve been „irresponsible citizens“, even though the government was even more irresponsible one, by holding general elections in the middle of a pandemic. Others are furious because they heard the crisis staff tell them over and over that the virus „has weakened“ because it „can’t survive in the sun“, and acted accordingly, only to be blamed for it now that those claims turned out to be complete hogwash.

Last night, people took to Belgrade’s streets, not due to the curfew announcement, but because, for four months now, they’ve had no control over their own lives, and the ones who have that control consider themselves absolved of any responsibility. Last night’s protests were an outpouring of collective frustration caused by the fact that someone thinks they have the luxury of presenting the numbers of those infected and those who died from Covid in accordance with what brings the most political value at any given moment, playing us all for fools in the process.

That’s why one exclamation from a protester accurately represents the flaming ball of rage rolling through Belgrade’s streets. His eyes puffy from tear gas, the man approached the camera and, during a live transmission, stated the following: „Dad, this is for you, who died, and there was no ventilator, in the official report. Dad, I love you so much. Đufo, Ljubiša Đurić, I love you so much. This is for you, and for my son who was just born.“ When asked by the reporter what his father died of, he added: „Because there weren’t any ventilators. To this day, I haven’t received the tests that show he died from Corona. There were no ventilators in the Zemun hospital. The official report! And they all said we’re practically giving ventilators away. Dad, this is for you, my dad. I know you would be proud.“

What did you expect?

It goes without saying that today, and in the days ahead, we’ll have our ears full of the regime’s outcry about the violent protests. They’ll be counting the burning trashcans, and the broken flowerpots. They’ll weep about the damaged entrance to the House of Parliament. To all that, they deserve a proper answer: what did you expect?

What were you expecting, when you robbed last year’s peaceful protests of any sense or purpose, when you laughed at them, lowering the numbers of people protesting and counting them by putting red dots on their heads in photos? What did you think would happen after laughing just the same at the Coronavirus, saying how you’re fully prepared, only to shut people in their homes, arresting anyone who dared to go outside, and then letting your infantry light torches on the tops of buildings? When you suddenly cancelled all precautionary measures so you could push your sham elections through, and now you want to blame the people for the packed hospitals and reintroduce a police curfew? If public institutions are playing dead, what exactly should be the reaction of the people to the knowledge – supported by BIRN’s data – that you’ve been covering up the real infection and body count for months?

What did you expect? Another peaceful march? An online petition? Silent obedience?

Currently, we are in such a state that the protesters aren’t even asking for resignations – they’re simply fed up with staying quiet and enduring being played for fools. One of them, a man who took off his mask so we could see his face, simply elaborated the point of everything we’ve seen last night, live on camera. He said: “There will be no peace if there’s no justice.”

There won’t, because that kind of peace is no peace at all.

(Translation: Vera Novković)

Hajrić: Građani podstanari u vlastitoj državi, vlast se ponaša kao Nejmar – N1 20.01.2019.

Talasanje u Vučićevoj zemlji meda i mleka

Vanredni izbori ove godine deluju kao neminovnost: nezadovoljstvo građanki i građana raste i preliva se na ulice, tako da je vlasti neophodno da još jednom ritualno trijumfuje pre nego što na red dođe završni čin kosovske epopeje, koji se takođe nazire u godini pred nama.

Izbori u Srbiji, naravno, predstavljaju i nešto više od puke obnove legitimiteta. Oni su idealna prilika da se ionako barbarska propaganda pojača za još koji stepen, da se nekažnjeno premlati pokoji opozicioni aktivista za nauk ostalima i da se sopstvenim biračima ponudi isprazan osećaj pobede nad nekim i nečim. Druge vajde od vlasti neće imati, izuzev ako im stranački biro za zapošljavanje dodeli kakvu apanažu plaćenu novcem svih nas.

Iznad svega, ovakvi kakvi su sada, izbori predstavljaju način da se opozicija stalno iznova vraća na fabrička podešavanja. Nakon što ih vlasti poraze koristeći neograničena novčana sredstva isceđena zloupotrebom državnih sredstava i kontrolom najvećeg dela medija, opoziciji preostaje samo novi ciklus ostavki, međusobnih optuživanja i raskola. Poslednja tura je odnela Sašu Radulovića i Dragana Šutanovca sa čela njihovih opcija, pripremila teren za nedavni brzi odlazak Saše Jankovića u političku penziju i time otvorila put ukrupnjavanju opozicije.

Protestna kvadratura kruga

Bude li zaista vanrednih izbora, njihov značaj će direktno zavisiti od pravila pod kojima će se održati. Ukoliko opozicija, uprkos trenutnom stavu, izađe na njih bez prečišćenih biračkih spiskova, bez obučenih kontrolora na svakom biračkom mestu, bez pristupa medijima i bez načina da džipove bez tablica zadrži podalje od biračkih mesta, može komotno da pokuša i da bez padobrana skače iz aviona. Rezultat će biti u dlaku isti.

Manevarski prostor za dobijanje ustupaka je praktično nepostojeći kada imate vlast koja opoziciju tretira kao tropsku bolest i koja se na svaku kritiku na svoj račun baca na travu i valja kao Nejmar kad ga štoper pogleda popreko.

Pa ipak, potencijalni adut u borbi za dašak poštenih izbora predstavljaju protesti čiji povod je bio napad na Borka Stefanovića. Oni traju već nedeljama, a broj učesnika im je u porastu, i to nije uspelo da sakrije ni naprednjačko „kreativno brojanje“ prema kojem svaki demonstrant zauzima sedam kvadratnih metara.

Najavom da neće uslišiti zahteve revoltiranih sedmokvadratnih građana „čak ni ako ih se skupi pet miliona“ vrhovni vođa Vučićlenda je direktno omasovio proteste. To mu je izgleda postalo jasno pa je napravio zaokret od 180 stepeni i ponudio da sasluša zbog čega su to građani nezadovoljni u njegovoj državi meda i mleka.

Naravno da je ponuda neiskrena. Formulisanje zahteva je šansa da se unutar protesta stvori razdor, a njihovo iznošenje je prilika da tabloidi fiksiraju metu kojoj će ispaljivati naslovnice u potiljak. Povrh toga, ponuda dolazi uz Vođinu ogradu da hoće da sasluša građane a ne stranke, pri čemu naravno zadržava pravo da procenjuje koji zahtev je vaš lični, a koji iznosite zato što ste soroševski instruisana dosmanlijska gnjida željna linča, silovanja i nasilja. Drugim rečima, Vučić bi da bude jedini tumač konteksta, a kontekst je sve. Pošteno, zar ne?

Opozicija 2019. treba da reši kvadraturu kruga: kako da se ne gura u prvi plan građanskih protesta – ovih ili nekih budućih – a da ih iskoristi kao adut u borbi za iole legitimne izbore. Dodatni izazov leži u tome da tokom 2019. počne da koristi autogolove vlasti, a ne da postiže sopstvene, kao što je Đilasov stav da za Vučića radi svako ko kritikuje opoziciju i ne dolazi na proteste. Time se ne stiču nove pristalice, niti se pokazuje da si drugačiji od onih koje bi da smeniš, a da bi klatno konačno krenulo na drugu stranu potrebno je odoleti iskušenju da se puca u vlastito stopalo.

Kosovska hipoteka

Ono što bi 2019. moglo da učini godinom odluke je druga neizostavna tema srpske politike: Kosovo. Beogradskoj vladi je u interesu da konačni rasplet odugovlači što je moguće duže: u Briselu će imati punu podršku i odrešene ruke po pitanju unutrašnje politike dok god sarađuje u procesu formalizacije kosovske nezavisnosti.

Međutim, povratak Sjedinjenih Američkih Država u pregovarački proces prošle godine sugeriše da je prelomna tačka bliže nego što smo pretpostavljali. Kada do nje dođemo, Vučić će prestati da figurira kao faktor mira i stabilnosti, stičući istovremeno hipoteku Potpisnika Onoga Što Se Nije Smelo Potpisati.

Kako god prepakivali suštinu, nema propagande koja će takvu stavku u biografiji uspešno neutralisati pred protivnicima kosovske nezavisnosti. Naravno, daleko od toga da se neće pokušati: u javni govor već je umetnut termin „razgraničenja“, koji predstavlja ništa drugo do politički korektan način da se govori o priznavanju državnosti Kosova a da se sačuva patriotska nevinost.

Razgraničenje u svom korenu ima reč „granica“. Da se ne bismo dosetili između čega ono postoje granice, vlast metodično diže i spušta predratnu psihozu tako što u pravilnim razmacima vrišti o ratu koji samo što nije počeo, a od kojeg nas čuvaju diplomatski napori samozaljubljenog mesije. Ta držite-me-da-se-ne-pobijem retorika bila bi uverljiva kada ne bi bila rezervisana za domaću javnost – čim se prešaltaju na engleski, srpski zvaničnici skidaju ratničke boje i navlače široke ubriseljene osmehe.

Pa ipak, javnost u tu fantazmagoriju veruje zato što želi da veruje: lako je izražavati spremnost da se ide u rat kad znaš da je izvesnije da ćeš u 2019. otići u inostranstvo u potrazi za poslom.

Naravno, još je lakše kad si na čelu države, pa o svemu tome odlučuješ sam.

https://www.dw.com/sr/talasanje-u-vu%C4%8Di%C4%87evoj-zemlji-meda-i-mleka/a-46922059