According to official data, the number of newly infected with the corona virus tripled within three days. On Wednesday, it was 7488 in the last 24 hours, and if the exponential growth continues, Serbia will break record after record in the coming days in terms of the number of new cases. Everyone knew that this would happen like this.
Despite this, and unlike other European metropolises, the City of Belgrade organized not one, but two mass New Year's celebrations at two locations. The packed, cheering crowd sang at the top of their lungs with Karleusha and others, of course no one wore protective masks or kept any distance, that could not have been expected. Just like effective control of covid passes.
Clubs, restaurants, rafts and cafes were full of holes without any visible epidemiological measures. 100.000 people spent time in Belgrade, 50.000 in Zlatibor, and so on.
Under the motto of Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar, "your country is not your mother and father", the government encouraged New Year's celebrations, because "something has to be earned", and called on citizens to be responsible and take care of epidemiological measures themselves.
As far as earnings are concerned, tens of thousands of people can be expected to be on sick leave in the next week.
And as for everything else: during New Year's Eve, a measure was in force that permitted outdoor and indoor gatherings of up to 500 people, while "permits from the Crisis Staff are necessary for all larger gatherings." If such permission existed, it did not reach the public.
And if not, then the City of Belgrade incited a misdemeanor offense with premeditation. And even if it is: epidemiologists have previously drawn with the city's eyes what will happen if a celebration is organized in honor of Belgrade on the water and false Serbian normality, not in those words of course.
The argument in this context that "the state is not for the citizens' mom and dad", so that it imposes some measures on them and controls them, is a reflection of radical populism with a hint of arrogant cynicism.
According to that familiar logic, why wouldn't the state give up control of the prescribed speed in traffic and tell citizens to take care of safety measures themselves and not put themselves and others in danger.
Or to refrain from controlling driving under the influence of alcohol and/or psychoactive substances, because it is not "the state of mom and dad" to control these legal measures, but to leave the drivers to be responsible.
In all three cases, by irresponsible behavior, the individual endangers himself and others, and the state is obliged to use all available means to implement legal measures to prevent this.
This behavior of state and local authorities can only be explained by the fact that public opinion surveys have shown that the cancellation of an organized and mass New Year's party, along with the denial of earnings to people from their own ranks, would be more harmful to the rating of Aleksandar Vučić and the coherence of the Serbian Progressive Party, than a sharp increase of new patients in the post-New Year's days, which was completely certain.
In the coming days, representatives of the Cooperative in power will convince the people that they are to blame for the crowds in front of covid dispensaries and hospitals through pinks and information. Along the way, they can cross themselves and pray that the symptoms of the disease will be milder and the mortality rate will be lower than before.
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
