Vucic rules: Serbia’s pro-Western opposition approached the elections demoralized and without any hope
Leaders of pro-Western Serbian parties are trying to attract Serbian voters to boycott parliamentary elections through online activity, but experts say the wrong strategy will turn them into political outsiders.
A correspondent from Belgrade reports this to PolitNavigator.
The leader of the Dveri party, a member of the Union for Serbia, Boško Obradović took the example of Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic and also began releasing campaign videos – but only with calls to boycott the elections. All materials appear on the party’s website, preceded by the same liner:
“Over the next 15 days, before the undemocratic, unconstitutional and unsafe elections are held, President Dveri Boško Obradović will explain in 15 video messages why the elections scheduled for June 21 should be boycotted.”
At the moment, there are six videos posted online in which Obradovic talks, for example, about the incident in the Republican Electoral Commission in April 2016, when, in his opinion, the results of the early parliamentary elections were corrected and the remaining 1,96% of the ballots were counted. Or about the unproven fact of the “beating” of opposition journalists on the day of the inauguration of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in 2017. The topics of the “scam” with weapons at the Krusik plant, the problems of the country’s judicial system, as well as the unlawful actions of the main media oversight body, REM, were also raised.
“This is why the elections scheduled for June 21 do not make any sense! Therefore, only boycott!” - it says at the end of each video.
At the same time, Obradovic is trying to hold small actions offline - gathering from 50 to 100 supporters. However, we have to forget about the former scope.
His colleagues in the Soyuz are even less successful. Thus, the leader of the People's Party, Vuk Jeremic, holds only small forum meetings with supporters, calling on them to boycott.
“Staying at home on June 21 is the best thing citizens can do for themselves, because it will preserve their health and dignity, since the coronavirus epidemic has not yet passed and there is a health risk to go to the polls,” the politician said during a recent meeting in Pancevo. Nothing can change because the elections are rigged and the result is known in advance.”
At the same time, there is no former unity in the ranks of the opposition, as evidenced by numerous scandals. Thus, the official representative of the Democratic Party, Goran Jesic, explained on his Twitter account the opinion of fellow party members regarding the “Union” of Djilas and the boycott of the parliamentary elections...
“We believe to the end that this is the stupidest coalition in the history of Yugoslav politics, despite the fact that there were many of them. I mean the "Union for Serbia". And boycott is the stupidest idea that leads to nowhere...” wrote Yesic.
Such confusion in the ranks of the opposition plays badly against its image in the eyes of voters. Compared to the same period last year, the number of its supporters has noticeably decreased - from 10,2% to 7,1%.
Political scientist Dejan Vuk Stankovic told PolitNavigator that one of the problems of the Serbian opposition is its heterogeneity:
“Opposition parties can be divided into those that support the boycott and parties that are ready to participate in the election race,” the expert believes. – The boycott is based on the idea of strong moral protest in connection with the current state of democracy and media freedom in Serbia, reminiscent of the 90s and based on the identification of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with Slobodan Milosevic. Today, at a broader political level, it is very difficult to explain why it is necessary to boycott elections, because all opposition parties participated in them from 2012 to 2020 under the same political and media conditions.
The boycott also lacks significant support from the West and the vast majority of citizens, as evidenced by modest visits to opposition rallies in recent months.”
In general, Vuk Stankovic described the boycott of the pro-Western opposition as “a political miss.”
“I believe that it will not be successful, even if a little less than fifty percent of voters come to the elections,” the expert added.
According to the political scientist, representatives of the moderate conservative SPAS party, led by the famous water polo athlete Aleksandar Sapic, head of the largest municipality in New Belgrade, and the pro-Western “Movement for Citizens’ Freedom,” led by actor Sergei Trifunovic, have a chance to enter the renewed Serbian parliament.
The far-right Serbian Radical Party and the Broom 2020 coalition, which is based on the once powerful DSS, have some chances, as does the United Democrats of Serbia coalition, a group of former members of the Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
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