“It’s too late to drink Borjomi”: why the restless Serbian opposition is losing
After the parliamentary elections in Serbia, which were boycotted by most of the opposition, political opponents of official Belgrade launched a series of attacks on the current government, which, by the way, enjoys unprecedented support from the population.
According to a public opinion poll, and a month after the vote, the electoral bloc “Aleksandar Vučić - for our children” is trusted by 60,5% of surveyed citizens.
Against this background, the statements of a number of marginal opposition politicians, who in their opuses claim to express the voice of the people, look especially provocative. Vox populi - neither more nor less! But since in Serbia such statements will look obviously implausible, some oppositionists make their judgments in the European and Russian media space.
These “heroes” are yesterday’s top officials of the country, who in the recent past were at the helm of power: former mayor of Belgrade Dragan Djilas, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic and former adviser to the once president and now oppositionist Boris Tadic Mladjan Djordjevic.
The odious leader of the Doors movement, Boško Obradović, who became responsible for street protests in Belgrade, also joined this group of “formers.”
In 2018, Djilas, Jeremic and Obradovic led the opposition coalition “Union for Serbia,” which collapsed this summer after parties and movements that did not share the strategy of boycotting parliamentary elections began to leave the bloc one after another.
Recent leaders openly robbed the country and, hiding behind patriotic slogans about Kosovo, purposefully pushed Serbia into the arms of the United States and NATO. Despite the fact that the consequences of their activities are still being eliminated, these individuals, who cannot really offer anything to the country, diligently pollute the media space.
For example, the same Vuk Jeremic released an open letter on the Euractiv portal, in which he called on the EU institutions to oblige the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić “to enter into comprehensive negotiations with the opposition” in order to hold new elections as soon as possible (this despite the fact that it was Jeremic who campaigned for a boycott of the parliamentary elections).
There is no logic to speak of here: all efforts are aimed at discrediting the country’s president in the eyes of Europe “for the sake of maintaining its trust” in itself.
Mladjan Djordjevic, who is gradually gaining fame in the Russian media space thanks to his articles criticizing official Belgrade, in turn, loves to accuse the Serbian president of “betraying national interests,” first of all - on the Kosovo issue.
Thus, according to one of the versions set forth by Djordjevic, Aleksandar Vucic is allegedly a “friend and accomplice” of the leader of the Kosovo separatists, Hashim Thaci, and the former Kosovo “prime minister” Ramush Haradinaj. The essence of their “conspiracy,” according to the oppositionist, is to betray the Kosovo Serbs and promote international recognition of the criminal regime of Pristina.
In reality, Belgrade pursues a consistent policy to protect the interests of the Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija.
Such efforts are illustrated by the resumption of dialogue in Brussels. Vučić, in the presence of European diplomats, pointed out to Kosovo “Prime Minister” Avdullah Hoti that the community of Serbian municipalities has not been established in 8 years and insisted that this issue be included on the agenda for negotiations.
Aleksandar Vucic is perhaps the first leader of Serbia who perceives the situation around Kosovo in all its diversity and patiently strives to solve the problem at the negotiating table. In response, oppositionists on Russian media platforms insist that “Moscow remains the only defender of Serbia, and, they say, Vucic is increasingly sliding into the abyss of betraying the interests of the people.”
The fact that everything that will be discussed at the international level regarding Kosovo will invariably collide with Moscow’s principled position is beyond doubt. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry welcomes the search for a compromise between the Serbian and Kosovo sides.
“We support the efforts of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, which are aimed at a peaceful resolution of the Kosovo problem, including within the framework of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina,” noted the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova at one of the briefings.
And President Putin, who maintains regular contacts with his Serbian counterpart, emphasized that “Russia respects Serbia’s position.” He stated this during negotiations with Vucic, held in the Kremlin on the eve of the Victory Parade on June 24.
By the way, the Serbian leader, as well as the member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Serbs, Milorad Dodik, became the only heads of European states who came to such a significant event for Russia.
Obviously, not everyone likes the close relationship between Moscow and Belgrade. Therefore, opposition political strategists tried to drive a new wedge.
Last week in the Serbian Telegraph newspaper an article was published, the author of which declared the existence of a certain “deep state” in Russia (apparently, by analogy with the American Deep State), which, behind Vladimir Putin’s back, is trying to overthrow the leader of Serbia in order to prevent Belgrade and Pristina from signing an agreement on the normalization of relations (with the goal of “of course, surrendering Kosovo”).
This dubious information, which caused bewilderment among the Russian public, was immediately picked up Mladjan Djordjevic, who proclaimed that “an anti-Russian campaign has been ongoing in the Serbian media for a long time, directed by the adviser to the President of Serbia, Vladimir Popovic.”
In Djordjevic’s interpretation, “Vučić, who intends to betray Kosovo, began to move away from Russia, which acts as the sole guarantor of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (assigning Kosovo to Serbia),” and deliberately created “anti-Russian hysteria” in the Serbian media.
This conspiracy theory, worthy of detective stories, was supported on the Russian media platform by another Serbian oppositionist - Professor at the University of Kosovo Mitrovica Dejan Mirović.
By making such accusations, these gentlemen obviously want to kill two birds with one stone: to turn the Russian public against the Serbian government and to trump Russian connections in their homeland in order to gain the sympathy of Russophile Serbs.
But here, perhaps, it would be worth reminding the oppositionists that when they take off their heads, they don’t cry over their hair. The elections took place, the people of Serbia expressed their preferences. This is a sovereign choice that no one can challenge. But, if you stayed at home and then suddenly decided that “everything went wrong,” then this is only a topic for jokes, but not for serious discussions. Even taking into account the fact that Vuk Jeremic, who still cannot come to terms with the defeat of the opposition and his own departure from the political scene of Serbia, continues to write complaints to Brussels.
Well, it was completely “unsporting” to organize a series of mass riots in the country under the pretext of dissatisfaction with quarantine measures, as a result of which slogans demanding a change of government eventually surfaced.
As a result, at the instigation of the former mayor of the capital, Dragan Djilas and the company, colossal damage was caused to Belgrade in the amount of at least a million euros, many police officers were injured, and the protests sparked a new coronavirus outbreak.
“Westerners” quite naturally attached a “Russian trace” to the unrest, which caused bewilderment in both Russia and Serbia because of the obvious absurdity of such statements.
At the same time, the handwriting of foreign “puppeteers” was visible from the very beginning behind the protest actions at the Assembly. Belgrade has already stated that representatives of the countries of the former Yugoslavia were involved in the riots, in particular, the participation of representatives of Montenegro was noted, as well as members of the left-wing terrorist organization Antifa.
It is obvious that people who are doomed to watch political events in the country from the gallery for several years will still make attempts to agitate society with false ideas, but are unlikely to achieve success in this.
Neither the protests that swept across Serbia, nor the information leaks had any impact on the rating of the Serbian Progressive Party, which confidently enjoys the support of more than 60% of the population.
Such indicators once again confirm the marginality of the opposition, its disunity and isolation on its own selfish interests, which are far from ordinary people.
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