Civil protests in Serbia seek to return sovereign power to the legal and legitimate holder of the highest authority: the people. It's as if they shaved in ancient Rome 2500 years ago during the reign of Anastasius I
From time to time, the statement that the people of Serbia are restoring their (usurped) sovereignty spreads through the public. That's true, but what does that mean?
General strike in Rome
When in 494 BC the Roman plebs (the people) rebelled against the Roman nobility - and they rebelled because no one asked them about anything, corruption flourished, and the institutions went crazy - they canceled their obedience and non-violently, to the astonishment of the patricians, retreated to the Aventine Hill (so let them see who will work for them and join the army). The people declared a general strike, so to speak.
When he saw that the devil had taken the joke to the Aventine Hill, the consul Meninius Agrippa himself laughed and gave an instructive speech to the people in which he nicely explained that it cannot be like that, that they, the people, are the body and stomach of the city, and he, Meninius and his men, they are the head of the city, so how will the head be without the body. That's not right, Meninius finished and hinted at something about color revolutions.
Titus Livius records that after the speech there was no national enthusiasm, and the outcome, after some struggle, was that the people got their representatives in the Senate, the tribunes, which had never happened before. The people did not get full power on that occasion (full power), but at least, through his representatives, he participated in decision-making, which was an unprecedented shift in the relationship between the nobility and the people. No wonder the Roman republic flourished.
It was, therefore, two and a half thousand years ago, and in the meantime, with the modern age, the concept of sovereignty was also invented. For this occasion, it is important for us that the multitude became subjectivized and became politically relevant after the rebellion. The plebeians forced the corrupt rich to admit them simply because there were so many of them. Let there be no confusion: in Rome at that time, as well as in present-day Serbia, the institution of free and fair elections did not exist. Or, as Machiavelli expressed it with his characteristic cuteness and brutality: the people are the strongest because there are many of them.
What is sovereignty?
In the meantime, with the modern age, as a way to get out of religious conflicts, sovereignty was invented. For this occasion, we will define sovereignty as the highest commanding power (imperium), and the sovereign would be the one whose commands are obeyed by those to whom that command is directed, and that he himself cannot be ordered because there is no higher instance than him in the hierarchy of power. That is why sovereignty is also defined as the highest political authority (from the Latin superanus in which it is heard Great – above), that is, as the highest power.
But who is sovereign? In the monarchist tradition, it is the monarch, the individual (king, emperor, dictator) who gathers the greatest power in his hands (the state, that is me, is the famous exclamation of the absolutist monarch Louis 14). In republics, on the other hand, the bearer of sovereignty can be the state, but also the people (not an individual). Serbia, let us remind you, is a republic de jure, formally, according to the letter of the constitution.
Since, however, the Serbian Progressive Party overthrew the republic, trampled on the constitution and made the laws meaningless, and worked hard on the development of corruption as the only relevant institution, Serbia has, de facto, monarchy: the rule of one man who rules not by law, but by the whims of his unstable nature. As he comes to mind, then.
Formally, the Serbian sovereign is the people (citizens of this country), but in fact it is an individual who rules illegally and illegitimately. Illegal because it violates the constitution and laws. Illegal because he does not have a mandate to rule: it is not known who he represents (because he did not get the mandate in free and fair elections), so we conclude that he works for himself and a small group of usurpers. The rule of the SNS is, to that extent, factual. Dictatorial.
Full power
Civil protests in Serbia, therefore, seek to return sovereign power to the legal and legitimate holder of the highest power: the people, the citizens of this country. Because, full power, the people have full power, real power. The nation is a multitude that, thanks to its representatives, turns into a political subject precisely because it is able to legitimize itself as the bearer of sovereign power. The people are sovereign de jure i de facto.
By law and by actual acts performed on his behalf by republican institutions.
When the formula "in the name of the people" is used in free countries, it means that the representatives of the sovereign work in its name and on its account. When, however, the representatives of usurped sovereignty work in the name and at the expense of an individual who overthrew the republic, trampled on the constitution and broke all the laws that could be broken at all, it means that an alienated monarchical group has turned against the citizens of the country it governs. To that extent, citizens' movements in Serbia, in the last few months, are returning the sovereignty that was stolen from them.
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Where Seselj left off, Vucic continues. Why did Ana Grozdanović, a member of the SPS Main Board, deserve the position of Minister of Justice in Dr. Macuta's government? And what the regime wants to achieve with the Stalinist campaign of intimidation
These are the last days when there is a chance that the great rebellion in Serbia will not pass in vain and without a political result. If it goes that way, the regime will launch an even stronger retaliation
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
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