And if elections have not been officially announced - and, if the words of the government representatives are to be believed - it won't be at least until the spring of next year, the regime is heavily involved in the pre-election campaign. The last propaganda message in the series is a video entitled "Serbia supports the people" shared by the Serbian president on Instagram Aleksandar Vučić, and then it was taken over by all the regime tabloids.
As they say - the editors recognized the topic. The main topic on the front pages of the regime's portals today (September 22) is the following: how life is now better because of the price reduction measures introduced by the state.
The story follows a single mother from Voždovac, Neda Đorđević, who returns from shopping in the video shared by Vučić. Then follows her story: since her husband died 11 years ago, and she was left alone with two children, she lived a difficult life.
"You go to the store and if you don't really need this so much, then you leave it and you'll buy it another month... You buy what you need," says Neda and adds that "of course this means a discount".
"When you buy a certain amount for a month, you feel it... I prepare lunch, breakfast, now we will have dinner somewhere in the city."
"Tweaking" the tabloids
It is clear that the primary purpose of the video is to show how, due to the recent government measures to restrict margins in retail stores, the purchasing power of the average person has increased.
Undoubtedly, it is the story of a single mother that is there to evoke emotion in the viewer.
However, so that someone would not accidentally miss the real news - and that is that none of this would have been possible if it were not for Vučić and his ingenious measures - the tabloids further "tweaked" Neda Đorđević's story.
Thus, mostly already in the first or second paragraph, it is reminded that the price reduction measure was adopted "at the initiative of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić", even though not even a month has passed since its implementation. Then free estimates are added, and so on
"Kurir" writes that "Neda takes out one by one from the shopping cart, everything she bought in the children's supermarket, and today we are crying more than it was a month ago."
In "Kurir" they add that "life is much easier when you have Serbia behind you that supports the people".
"Today, fortunately for Neda's family, things are much better thanks to new state measures for ordinary citizens, for ordinary people who work hard every day."
Campaign before the campaign
The sharing of such recordings, with mandatory distribution through the propaganda tabloid machinery, is entirely in line with the moves of the authorities in the past few weeks.
"Time" already wrote about how it is Serbian Progressive Party heavily in the campaign. As CESID program director Bojan Klačar explained at the time, the progressives are ready to call for elections at any time.
"There are several moves that have always been a sign of the upcoming elections in Serbia, and which the SNS has been doing lately. It is a whole series of pre-election activities. From the rally in Požega, through the rallies against the blockades that were held in the past few weekends, the increase in the minimum wage, the announced increase in pensions, the adoption of economic measures. It seems to me that the ruling party does not want to close the door to the elections at any moment. That is why it is making moves that can enable them to call elections whenever they assessments", added the executive director of CESID.
He explained that the Serbian Progressive Party "understands that the elections are close even if they are in a year, a year and a half. With such events on the ground, all we are looking at is the election campaign."
