Fantasizing about "shortcuts" that lead to a change of government is a direct consequence of the fact that in these twelve years almost every road, even the goat path, leading to the normal change of ruling personalities and parties has been closed.
When I was a kid, it was a popular joke that was told in low voices and only in close company. Elem, a man stands in front of a kiosk and stares intently at the front pages of the daily newspaper. After a while he leaves, visibly displeased. The same scene is repeated the next day, and the third, and the fourth... The trafficker can no longer resist: "Sir, why do you study the front pages every day and never buy a single newspaper?" "I'm looking for obituaries," the citizen replied resignedly. "But the obituaries are not on the front page!", the trafficker tells him. "Believe me, the one I'm looking for will be on the front page," the man replies and leaves.
We all, of course, read it as an allusion to Tito's death and giggled with pleasure, not because we really wished that Tito - then longtime Number One of "Alan Ford" - would actually die, but because it was ticklishly pleasant. and seductively dangerously participate in breaking taboos. Tito was mostly a beloved dictator, but still a dictator, and such people do not like to think about the end of their life and their rule (which in these cases are very often one and the same), and especially they do not allow it to be considered publicly as a possibility, even inevitable option. Hence another apocryphal anecdote: supposedly Marshall once said somewhere "If I ever die...". It is probably pure fiction, but one of those that has something more real than reality.
Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad he escaped from the rebels, saving his life, by plane, at the last moment; for some time it was even speculated that he was dead, that his plane was shot down somewhere in the Levant, but there will be no obituary on the front pages because Bashar and his family have appeared in Moscow (and where else, certainly not in Copenhagen). So he had better luck or faster reflexes than Ceausescu and his lovely Elena, who also flew off in the direction of the whole world while heaven was breathing down their necks, but they didn't get very far but were grounded, and briefly grounded, which was watched live by the whole world - as a modern version of former hangings or burnings in the squares.
The democratically elected president of the democratically organized Republic of Serbia these days, for unknown reason, he declared that he "is not Assad" and that he "will not run away". There is no reason not to believe that he is sincere, although he is certainly aware of the fact that the great and hospitable Moscow always has enough accommodation capacity if by chance it gets crowded. There are, after all, the much closer Pest, where his politically older brother is at the table, but that may not be such a safe option in the long term, there is no such encroaching Russian width.
But why are we even talking about it and drawing such morbid parallels, and here they are drawn even by Vučić himself? What does "our situation" have to do with the escapes, successful or unsuccessful, and deaths, violent or natural, of some white world tyrants? In this country, don't the authorities change in a peaceful and civilized manner, in democratic elections? I don't know, ask Vučić... I only know that neither Tadić nor Koštunica ran anywhere when they "fell from power", nor did they fear for their lives. Just as that German Scholz is in no way threatened by the loss of power, and just as his predecessor, Mutti Angela, was not: here she is, alive, well and cheerfully promoting her memoirs. The only ruler in Serbia's recent history who was "removed" by being shot was Zoran Đinđić, but he was killed by people who are supporters rather than opponents of tyranny - of course, the kind of tyranny that suits them both ideologically and quite practically-statistically.
So let's get a little serious. These Bashar-parallels actually have two sources, opposing and yet complementary. On the one hand, the government itself has long been spreading rumors about countless "assassinations" against Vučić, which he probably survived thanks to his superpowers (perhaps stuffed squid is for him what spinach is for Popeye?), and even more about how the opposition and rebellious citizens, students and others want to "overthrow" him from power illegitimately and undemocratically, i.e. physical and political violence of various kinds. On the other hand, it is not untrue that among the political opponents of the regime there is a growing frustration in which any vent is good - just as the obituary request on the front page was a vent due to Marshall's factual and official immutability - where fantasizing about "shortcuts" that there is a change of government, a direct consequence of the fact that in these twelve years almost every road, even the goat path, leading to the normal change of ruling personalities and parties has been closed. In the end, only one party remained on the scene, as if it were God's day for power and governance, and that party disappeared and merged into one person, who even particularly enjoys the fact that his party, i.e. remind his courtiers that they are nobody and nothing without him.
That is even true, but he is also nobody and nothing without power, even if he would have no reason to fear repercussions for his civil status should the rug be pulled from under his feet. Elsewhere, in countries that are still democracies, former/retired presidents and prime ministers give lectures and write memoirs, but can you imagine that gloomy man who emanates general gloom with energy vampirism writing about his life and someone reading it even though he doesn't have to?
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Less than two days of blockade - that's how long it took to see how weak and powerless the public media service is, both from the outside and from the inside. At the moment of writing this text, it is the eighth day of the blockade, and the sixth that RTS is not broadcasting its program. They also seem to be facing a strike inside the house. And the essence of blocking RTS is not in what it publishes, but in what it keeps silent
In the months after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, the flames of rebellion spread throughout Serbia. The first protests started in Novi Sad right after the tragedy. The authorities responded with arrests, police cordons and intimidation, but instead of calming down the protesters, new protests followed.
The rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, has been the target of top state officials and regime tabloids for months, who label him as an insidious instigator of student protests, an opportunist, "the face of evil" and "the leader of the criminal octopus." How and why a rector became "state enemy number one"
"I'm standing in the cordon, and my daughter is shouting at me 'aw, aw, killers'. What should I do? If they ordered me - I would throw down my baton and bulletproof vest and stand on the side of my child," a police officer from the south of Serbia, who works as needed in the Belgrade Police Brigade, told "Vreme"
The recent formation of the Đura Macuta government is part of the regime's revenge and cynicism. This can be seen most in the "black troika" of new ministers appointed to deal with the parts of society that are the leaders and symbols of the big rebellion that lasted for several months, the cause of which was the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, which claimed 16 human lives. Education, universities, unsolicited media and parts of the judiciary that refuse to listen to orders, either publicly, with announcements, or hiding behind legal procedures, should be dismantled. Those who will have no problem doing everything they are told, even reinforcing the orders with their own inventions, are chosen for this.
Who mentions the extraordinary elections when the rating of the party in power is falling, and according to all surveys, Vučić is not the most important political factor in the country, but the students?
If in reality the principle of balance is violated - the way the incompetent regime violated the relationship between the concrete elements at the Novi Sad Railway Station - reality will behave like a canopy: it will fail to obey
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What is happening in the country and the world, what is in the newspapers and how to pass the time?
Every Wednesday at noon In between arrives by email. It's a pretty solid newsletter, so sign up!