Most of our cable operators today offers the ability to rewind content up to seven days back. On this occasion, I rewinded the entire year and realized that the amount of events led to the phenomenon of informational overload of our memory. The government is on its own TV tabloids continuously tried to distract citizens from increasingly massive and intense protests and other forms of expression of dissatisfaction.
This matchmaking of our attention, which is the basic impression of rewinding, actually speaks of the stolen year that Vučić stole from the citizens, but also from the international community. That's probably why the basic message we watched and listened to on the small screens was the victory over the "colored revolution" and the normalization of the situation in society, even though our daily experience assures us otherwise. The balance of international relations is also infamous because we are at the worst point of relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, without dialogue with the authorities of Kosovo, without new open chapters in negotiations with the EU, with US sanctions, blocked by the sale of NIS from the Russians, on the verge of an energy collapse.
"CHILDREN AT SCHOOL"
And it started idyllically. Believe it or not, since his much celebrated return to the White House, Trump has changed the world political scene. Unfortunately, our representatives were not present at the solemn ceremony, presenter Pinka reported on this event provincially, "Informer" sent congratulations on the billboards, but there was nothing to show for it. We received customs duties, sanctions against NIS, and only Milorad Dodik, who is no longer on the black list, has a positive balance with the White House.
That's why the year started in Belgrade with the exhibition of the mysterious street artist Banksy. Instead of graffiti with a girl with a red balloon, in our city there was a picture of a red fist next to her, a symbol of the bloody hands of the authorities, after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad.
In those days, I wrote about our counterpart, who at Jova's high school in Novi Sad sent the message to the students on strike "Go to school" with spray paint, and that's how a term was born that will mark an entire era. Although we did not reveal the identity of the author, he actually signed on behalf of an entire social group that was paid to oppose citizens and students. "Ćaci" has received countless derivatives referring to force, stupidity, lack of education, half-heartedness, agreeing to compromise, collaboration and absence of morals. Although Vučić tried to use this term politically, to give it some dignity, it remained a name of shame. "Ćaci" has no gender, does not depend on education and can be found in every area of society, either individually or collectively.
Student protests were certainly the main media content of 2025, but in a very unusual way. Namely, except Insider, Nova S and N1, all other tabloid TV channels, including RTS, dealt with students indirectly, without showing actors, but through comments, analyzes and negative propaganda. Just remember the hours and hours of propaganda in which SKONUS, protests were filmed from at least 100 meters away; for the first time I saw Dnevnik without a signed editor, reports on gatherings of citizens and students that are measured in seconds, weeks of avoiding the public service to apologize to the students they called fascists, and the citizens a mob. All over Serbia, students were greeted with offers, blankets, apples, with tears in their eyes, fear was shattered, apathy disappeared, and the government engaged in insulting and ridiculing citizens, reducing their number at rallies.
Producer of state propaganda or Vučić's counterpart to investigative journalism are shameless pamphlets produced by the Center for Social Stability. The first film of many to come was "The Vojvodina Files", where the government promoted paranoia that Vojvodina would secede! Then they defended it for several weeks and declared victory.
This imitation of the spirit of student protests soon became a model of propaganda. "Students" 2.0 were created, those who "want to learn" but are not given it. They protested that they were eating sandwiches at the camp in Pionirski Park, while the students during the protest received roasts - "from foreigners". Vučić decided to behave like a child who sulks and repeats everything the students do.
This media tactic only asks viewers to turn off all logic. Someone for the money, someone who wants it, someone who doesn't have it and has no problem turning it off.
That is why the TV phenomenon of the previous year is a kind of media contradiction. Trump shuts down US Aid, so the entire SNS celebrates, but at the same time it is forgotten that Ana Brnabić, Vučević, Vučić and all the others received aid for state projects for more than a decade, took pictures under the sign of this organization or were employed by it.
We support the Russians who are shelling Ukraine, but we support Ukraine's territorial integrity and sell it ammunition to shell the Russians, whom we support, and we will not impose sanctions on them.
All over Serbia, the government organizes blockades and marches that paralyze the suburbs of cities, tabloids report on "hundreds of thousands of citizens" who are bothered by not being able to move freely, go to the maternity hospital and collect their pensions, then block all over Serbia, where the only blockade is Ćaciland in front of the Parliament.
Ćaciland is a reported rally that lasts for months, paralyzes the center of Belgrade and Vučić says that it is "the germ of resistance to the blockaders". When journalists or passers-by approach the fence or go inside, the police do not protect them and they are beaten by people with criminal records. Schools are working normally, but children are not going to school. The sound cannon is an invention, which we don't have, we actually have it, but it is in the warehouse, that is, there is one in front of the Assembly, but it is not in Slavia. Our exchange rate is destroyed by guest workers who bring dinars to Serbia and buy euros, and students are thugs who are beaten by thugs, and frightened children trample them with cars.
The prosecutor's office for organized crime are criminals who write indictments against members of the government, so the government should abolish the prosecutor's office and take control of it. The opposition does not want us to enter the EU, so it is obstructing a rigged election for the REM members so that we do not open Cluster 3.
That's why Vučić declared victory over the "colored revolution" in February and announced the book. Nothing is over yet, because the media war continues. In the meantime, Vučić's government fell and we got a new prime minister, Đura Matsut, whom Vučić's security guards cover at rallies, his press office misspells his name in press releases, while Vučić lectures him at government meetings where he is not a guest, but presides.
PRESSURE JUMP
An element of confusion was also introduced by the opposition, which staged a circus with tear gas and smoke bombs in front of a large student gathering in Belgrade on March 15. The effect was zero, and the tearful Brnabićka promptly adopted everything that was on the plan for adoption. It was announced on television that Romanians would break into Belgraders' apartments and steal televisions during the protest, which led to a diplomatic scandal, one of many.
The government surrounded the 2.0 students with tractors and barbed wire, used a sound cannon against citizens, stopped train and bus traffic because of bombs, and the Informer showed a man thrashing with his penis in front of the Assembly. RTS broadcast the program from the Puzzle studio all day long, so Ivica Dačić sat in the place of the red competitor in Skočkovo Dnevnik.
Immediately after using the sound cannon live in the studio, the informer, together with Đuk, celebrated with the song "the wind blows a little over the liver", with the statement "how Vule beats!" And Vučić once again violated all health and moral criteria by going with the TV crew among the seriously injured victims of the tragedy and fire in Kočani. Students organized a protest against "dez-Informer", the media executioner, while in the newsroom they sang "no king, no Tito, now Vučić is asking again". In those days, SBB was sold and Informer was offered by this provider. The war of cable operators is over, SBB is split between Yetel and Telekom, and N1 and Nova S now face an uncertain fate.
A medical element was introduced into the personality cult. After the debacle in America, when Vucic was returned from Florida, under still unclear circumstances, for days the entire elite sent him messages of support because the pressure on him increased.
VUCIC IS NOT INVINCIBLE
A little later, Minister Glišić suffered a stroke in Pink's studio, which was interpreted as an attack on his health. Creepy and tasteless was this manipulation to which a man voluntarily agreed, or here political loyalty is paid with the head. In a similar way, the health condition of those who went on hunger strike was manipulated this year. Among them were politicians such as those in Pionirski Park, whom Vučić then begged to have lunch.
SNS MP Mrdić also went on strike because of the Prosecutor's Office, but then he stopped. Dijana Hrka, the mother of one of the victims in Novi Sad, Jaćimović, who drove students on his buses for free, Marija Vasić, a teacher who was detained and then released to defend herself, as well as student Bogdan Jovičić, who was brought to his father's funeral with books, carried out much more serious and health-threatening hunger strikes.
We had local elections in Kosjerić, Zaječar, Mionica, Sečnje and Negotin, where "a handful of blockaders and citizens" managed to seriously disrupt the absolute political dominance of Aleksandar Vučić. Huge sums of money were spent, thugs were paid, votes were stolen and voters were intimidated. Despite this, in almost all places, students, alone or with the local opposition and citizens' associations, won at least a third of the votes. No media, no money in abnormal circumstances and a large number of irregularities. Vucic is not invincible.
In continuation of the imitation campaign, the Association of Journalists of Serbia, ANS, was founded, which brought together state propagandists, from whom ever greater loyalty is demanded. This institutionalized the unison and control of the media. This, unfortunately, led to the collapse of the format of channels such as Euronews Serbia, where more than 30 employees were fired after the publication of a statement in which employees dissociated themselves from an unsigned statement from the management in which students were insulted. On several occasions, Vučić publicly reminded editors and owners of quasi-commercial channels that he pays them, and then demanded unconditional support. That's how Milomir Marić became a TV platform for special media tasks. We ended the year with a televised ode to corruption and multi-decade bureaucratic inaction in the action of reporting 4,8 million illegal buildings under the symbolic name "Svoj na svome".
This year, among the important televangelists, Bojana Andrić and Goranka Matić left us, as well as Zdravko Šotra, who was replaced by state mourning for Halid Bešlić due to his criticism of Vučić.
"Vreme" turned 35 years old, "Pravi uago" Ljubica Gojgić turned 10 years old, and of the series that should be remembered there are Fortress, which talks about Serbian-Serbian fraternal shame and Important things, where we heard many truths about our reality from children.
NIS is under sanctions and Serbia is waiting, Serbia which is now neither EU, nor America, nor Russia. I would say - Serbia is waiting for Vučić's departure.
Counting votes and colorful costumes will, unfortunately, not be of much help.
Big holiday discount on "Vreme" - subscriptions 25 percent cheaper until mid-January. Give it away subscription to yourself or to someone else, read what matters.
