Between two Thursdays, a lot happened in Serbia, but least of all what basically has organized opposition activity. While the whole country is seething, while the people, justifiably and unjustifiably, attack activists and officials of the ruling party in the streets, the opposition, at least the one represented in the Serbian parliament, appears like this weekly - once every seven days, and sometimes less often.
So last week, a few days after the big protest in Belgrade on March 15, they finally came forward in some joint form and announced the idea of forming a transitional expert Government of Serbia as a way to overcome the political and social crisis in Serbia.
Despite the dozens of times previously stated direct position of the top of the regime embodied in Aleksandar Vučić that they would rather have to kill him than give power to anyone without an election, the idea of a transitional government has survived in the public for the last few months and now we have it on the table as a coherent and unified proposal of the majority of the parliamentary opposition.
FINALLY - THE OPPOSITION PROPOSES
The opposition, which consists of almost everyone except the Ecological Uprising of Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta and the Democratic Party - as well as the "constructive oppositionists" of those who broke away from the SSP and are now acting independently, as well as several versions of Nestorović's movement - appeared in a unified manner and communicated its offer to the regime in order to fulfill the demands of the students and ensure conditions for more or less free elections.
That "harmonized proposal" is not a pure government of experts, as many thought, but it is believed that it should also include politicians, that is, that it should have an expert and political part. Such a proposal was presented to the public at a press conference in the parliament, and in the following days, opposition leaders explained the idea on two TV stations where it was possible. Of course, the Public Service remained an insurmountable obstacle for the opposition. We have not seen any appearances by opposition members or debate shows in which the proposal would be discussed.
Unlike the regime - faced with the growing resistance of the citizens, the anger and hope brought by the student actions - which remains blocked and the only thing it offers is greater repression, the opposition presented its position which is in a way a helping hand to the regime to reach a solution together in a political way that will calm the situation in Serbia and open the door to the democratization of the country.
WAITING FOR VUCIC
It seems that, for the first time in this way, the opposition, gathered not on one side but around the same interest, is giving pace to the political process, going ahead of the regime, which not only overthrew its government, which had an absolute majority in the parliament, but also has no proposal for a new government and who would make up that government.
Formally, the leader of the majority, Miloš Vučević, who left the head of the government but is still the president of, let's say, the largest party, should appoint a representative, but even the babies in Serbian maternity hospitals know that he wonders just as much as they do, and that there really is neither a president of the SNS nor the SNS as an organized political party.
We are waiting for Vučić and his decision, and he remained on his old position to let things take their course, to drag it out as long as possible, because in that institutional intermediate state - which is a feature of his thirteen-year rule - his power grows because "only he has the legitimacy to decide" because "the people voted for him".
EMPTY, AND OPEN SPACE
The opposition, on the other hand, appeared with some kind of initiative for the second time in a month - before that they tried to prevent the holding of the parliament session, so when they failed, they didn't even go to the Assembly. And then Ana Brnabić and her MPs did what was planned, which was the adoption of dozens of regulations and finally the resignation of Miloš Vučević's cabinet.
The opposition, which was discussed on these pages, does not seem to have the strength for more than one joint gathering - whether it is a justified attempt to obstruct the work of the illegal parliament, or whether it is a more in-depth work on realizing the idea of an expert government. Their work takes place in a context that is favorable for them, because in the last few months the student initiative has done at least two key things that could decisively determine the future political scene of Serbia: they freed the voters from fear and caused the electorate of the government to ask themselves whether this is the best option for them and, also, they began to change the attitude of public opinion in Europe about the nature of the government of Aleksandar Vučić, who can hardly convince anyone now that he is a democrat. Although he is still treated as the most serious partner, when the news about the protests in Serbia and the reasons for those protests become part of the public discourse in the countries of Western Europe, the attitude of local politicians will also change.
More simply: the student rebellion opened a new space and changed the political environment in and around Serbia.
The opposition is quite inert and slow to all this, without determination and a plan that would show that they are ready to take over power at some level in Serbia in the near future. When Vučić says that they want to "sit in armchairs" without elections, that is so far from the truth - the Serbian opposition is afraid to even mention that its goal would be to lead Serbia tomorrow.
And there is plenty of room for action, precisely in the part that was liberated in the last three months by the incredible actions of Serbian students and citizens who worked hard, corrected themselves and again look like people who want to be free citizens, not obedient subjects.
A NECESSARY POLITICAL SOLUTION
It is not clear why that opposition group, in addition to the government of people's trust, as they christened it, did not ask for the removal of Ana Brnabić again, did not ask for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate what happened on the streets of Belgrade before and during the protests on March 15, it is not clear why they did not come out with a team of people who could lead that government...
Of course, these are more rhetorical questions that exist in a part of the public. The leaders of the parties generally have no answers to them, but say that they agree, that they have meetings and the like, but it's not a good idea if it takes them several months to make a decision. Additionally, the matter is more difficult because they are not all together, because the Ecological Uprising obviously believes that the solution is on the street, that there is nothing to negotiate with the regime, and that what they were "offered" should not be, because it is a kind of amnesty for all the bad things they have done for the last ten or more years. The Democratic Party, which for decades was the "hub of the gathering", and now stands alone outside the parliament, outside this opposition group, also agrees with such an approach and repeats that it "does not negotiate with terrorists".
In sum, part of the opposition would like this to be solved institutionally, in institutions that still have the AV sign on them because, they believe, this is a way to prevent any possible internal conflict in Serbia, which would have unforeseeable consequences. The other part, a smaller part in terms of the number of deputies but perhaps currently larger in the electorate, believes that the blockade is the solution and that persistent action on the blockade will lead to transformations of institutions that will probably at some point open their eyes and replace the corrupt government embodied in Aleksandar Vučić.
Both approaches seem unrealistic at first glance, but this is what is now on the table before all citizens of Serbia. They, on the other hand, and especially at the bar, that is, outside of Belgrade, started self-organizing, holding meetings according to the instructions of the student plenums, and it seems that they have the same way as the divided opposition: on the one hand, they can't stand the SNS and Vučić anymore, it's now at the level of pure emotions, but they demand at the meetings that the local authorities do what they agreed on in the street. Although they often say at those gatherings that they hate both Vučić and the opposition, they are trying the same as the opposition and now it is necessary to somehow recognize these two sides and see if they can work together because their demands and methodology are similar.
In order for that to happen, we should see more oppositionists on the streets, campaigning, on walks, unrelated to what the students are doing. Students do "their own thing", politics must enable them to do so, and in order to reach politics, we must see that organized political groups are active.
The student idea of "direct democracy" may work on a smaller number of people, in a building, street, block, but Serbia is still a republic. And the republic is based on representative democracy, and it is clear that it is impossible to gather all adult citizens in one place and ask them to constantly declare something. Unless someone suggests a viber group Serbia on e-governance, where all citizens of Serbia of legal age will be members and express themselves and discuss the most important things in the country. But anyone who has any group on their phone with more than five people knows how it works.
So, the regime has been shaken, but until the prosecutor and the police start making arrests on their own for corruption, and not by order, a political solution must be sought for what is happening in Serbia. Well, if tomorrow Netanyahu and the surviving leader of Hamas, or Putin and Zelensky will sit at the same table... you understand what I want to tell you.
