It's spring, and no one trusts anyone

By the decision of the Appellate Court in Kragujevac, the prison sentences of those who attacked Borko Stefanović, Boban Jovanović and police officer Dejan Palibrk with metal bars were annulled, and the case was sent back for a retrial. In an orderly state where the rule of law reigns, the public would shrug their shoulders and attribute everything to the skill of the lawyer, the prosecutor's and the court's failings...

This is not the case in Serbia. Apart from the staunchest progressives, few really believe that the current government is not behind everything: Borko Stefanović is a prominent opposition figure, because of his beating, months-long protests began under the name "Stop the bloody shirts" and, later, "One of 5 million", and the beatings themselves part of the progressive crowbar brigade in Kruševac. That's why it turns out that they waited so that the whole process would "age" a bit, so that it could not be relativized and diluted to the point of blandness and an insult to common sense. Just as Stefanović's bloody shirt was the image of Serbia in November 2018, so too in April 2021, the return of the case for retrial.

This does not change the possibility that the Court of Appeal really had completely justified reasons for its decision. Why? Because the word complete has lost any value in Serbia, no one trusts anyone anymore.

And how would you? From the president of the country downwards, the public is overwhelmed with a pile of fake news. Everything is possible and nothing. The "coup" announced in the morning was forgotten in the evening. Statements about the conspiracy at the top of the government and the preparation of the assassination of Aleksandar Vučić after two days are not remembered even by those who made them. Affair follows affair, "state authorities are working", there is no coherent epilogue.. That's why there is bragging about how "Serbia is the leader of the region", but not announcing what and by how much the price has gone up. The opposition is a group of thieves and criminals, while increasingly rich, arrogant and corrupt members of society are being moved from one ministry to another, from one position to another. And all this for years, in a circle.

Should anyone then be surprised by the lack of trust in the real motives behind the annulment of the verdict against the attackers of Stefanović, Jovanović and Palibrko?