For a long time, it has not been seen more clearly how much Javanese people have taken over Serbia than in that two-day visit of Aleksandar Vučić and his retinue to Varvarin, Aleksandrovac, Brus and Ćićevci. For this story, the names of those places and surrounding villages are not the most important because the principle is the same. In every small town, there is a certain Slavoljub Miljković, whom people say is the only one who asks about jobs or who transports cabbage or furniture for the cottage in the health center's car.
If at the beginning of March all the road machines that the President of Serbia promised to the citizens arrive in the villages of the Rasin district, it will not be possible to pass by Morava. But there is no need to worry, since it seems that even those who voluntarily came to see him and ask him for something no longer believe in the promises of Aleksandar Vučić. One says that the machines came and went and nothing, the other that nothing will ever be finished because two work and four watch, while one angry lady snapped at the president that those who come just scatter some sand and then she breaks her legs. Perhaps the idea was that the president, right at the moment when history was being written on the Novi Sad bridges over the Danube, would listen to what was bothering these people from central Serbia, but whoever wanted to see saw that all citizens, whether they were aware of it or not, were tormented by the same torment - institutions that do not do their job.
Has anyone been punished for that in the elections? It is not, because citizens poisoned by the media vote for only one and expect salvation from him. Gathered under the banners left over from the last election, "Ćicevac is with Vučić" or "The Barbarian is with Vučić", they are asking the president to make "his own", who he has placed there, to do their job. And they can see for themselves that they won't because he likes to be on stage with a microphone and tell them from that height that the state (and that's him) will allocate as much as the entire budget of their poor municipality just for roads. And to get applause for that.
If we had to single out the news from this two-day tour, it would be that the residents of central Serbia miss roads the most. Then water, better care for the elderly and sick, factories... Vučić promised everything either on Monday or at the beginning of March. Some may have believed, some have openly shown that they did not. The president was trying to turn it into a joke, he insultingly caricatured the accent from those regions, he lost his temper less often than usual... In the end, it left a bitter taste that the head of the state was a man who arrogantly and ironically took advantage of a work disabled person without a right hand for about 300 dinars of subscription to RTS.
THE SAME SAD STORY IN EVERY HALL
The two-day visit to the Rasin district was designed so that Defense Minister Bata Gašić, who is from that region, accompanies the president everywhere, and that the other ministers of the technical government are less visible. In all four places, the scenography was the same: the hall of the cultural center or the cinema was packed with people, and Vučić was alone on the stage. At the beginning, he made sure to mention that there were more people ahead who wanted to enter. Also: "I came to hear you, and then I will tell you something."
In every place he said the same thing. So - the country is under attack from both outside and inside, but he will know how to defend it. In every place people didn't care at all about that part of the story. How else to explain the phenomenon that the president just tells you that the country is in danger, and after that the first question is about a few kilometers of road in the village of Obrež or Mrzenica. And the scenario seems to have been ordered - first of all thanks and admiration, some emphasize that he is a member of the party and that he led people to Jagodin, and then he asks for something. Vučić must interrupt him.
For example: "How much is that in money, Bato?"
(Bata's response is not heard.)
"'Let's call Srbijavode now, so yes, son, you'll get an answer in five minutes. I'm still listening to people, so I'll say something too."
Then someone else starts speaking, and Vučić also interrupts him and says: "This boy was asking for something very expensive, he asked for 300 to 500 thousand euros, it's very expensive, but tomorrow people from Srbijavod will come and it will be."
Then, a geronto-homemaker should be provided, but only for the woman present who asks, because there is none for the entire service. Why was he not informed that the school in Pojate needed renovation?
"Miro, how much does that cost?", he asks the president of the municipality, she tells him about the project documentation, and it's clear to everyone from the murmuring that nothing will come of it in the near future.
Then the president argues with someone because he asks why there is such a large reduction for early retirement: “Wait for me, bro! If you think you know better. I'm not going to flatter you!", he brags.
He then advises on how to develop tourism in Stalac, then seizes a moment to switch to the tone of the pre-election rally and says how SNS won power without any media and changed the face of Serbia.
"And it is important that we go to the Movement for the next 10 and 15 years to continue working!" thunders Vučić, but that movement does not move anyone.
People continue talking about the roads, he is already losing his temper and rudely shouts at the elderly lady that he didn't come and destroy the roads, but that they should expect machines in early March. You can hear: "Aco, Serbs", but only twice. At the end, a child in national costume gives him a basket of gifts while a song is played This is Serbia, but not the most famous version with Topalka, but the chorus.
300 dinars
What did we learn from the citizens? Let's say that the president was already there, promised and didn't fulfill it. They tell him their name - they think he remembers - how they were there at the school last time and he promised a trip to Obrež, which is very important to them. He promised a bridge, he promised that the damages from the floods would be compensated and that he would do his best so that maybe a factory would arrive. Drinking water has reached a pool that is now overgrown with acacia, and the president promises machines in March, there will be water in a year... The man in the audience looks at him in disbelief, it seems that he expected the water to arrive in March. And for Obrež, Vučić admits that he is guilty, he promised that he will give 4,5 million euros, now the machines will arrive at the beginning of March.
Now, since those millions of euros hardly mean anything to anyone, a small illustration. The President on the street asks the President of the Municipality of Aleksandrovac what the city's budget is. And she first says one billion, then about seven billion, so that the income from the state is 60 million euros. Annoyed, he repeats the question, so he loudly counts millions, billions, and they arrive at 8,5 million euros. "Very little money for an Aleksandrovac", says Vučić and there is silence. The president doesn't even blink, she knows that she won't run in the elections under her own name.
If it wasn't for Maria from the municipality, who unknowingly humiliated the president the most because she asked him for new curtains for the House of Culture, we wouldn't have known that Minister Gašić helped them with the last renovation.
"Who did you calculate that from, Bato, from which ministry, God knows", funny for the president, and funny for the people because it's normal for everyone to take as much as they need. And to make sure that wasn't enough, the president charged either Minister Jelena Žarić Kovačević or Nikola Selaković for those curtains.
"If the sewage system stinks, tell Irena to do it" - I guess the minister, he didn't specify, if the problem is geometers, there is no water, the pension is small - he announces that the president of the municipality will come to visit them.
A certain man from the audience has already lost his temper, yelling that nothing can be done because the utility is private, and Vučić shouts: "Stop, stop, stop, bro! The president of the municipality will receive you, if she does not receive you, she will no longer be the president!" And he gets applause.
There was more laughter, but sour when the president shook his hand at the invalid. That yelling at the man and convincing him that the increase of 4.000 dinars is more than anyone gave him, that disdain in his voice when he says with an artificial accent: "No, you're going to fail for 300 dinars, so I should flatter you", showed that, unfortunately, those present did not have much dignity left. Otherwise, they would turn around and go outside, because no one should tolerate something like that.
COURAGE FROM DESPERATENESS
One Varvarinka showed integrity and courage on the street, but we learned from the conversation that she doesn't really have much to lose. Her husband died, she blames the health center for not sending an ambulance, and concentrates and metals and everything that someone needs privately are being transported, she says. Her son is sick, does not work, does not receive social benefits. Well, such a woman is not afraid to come up on the street and say that everything is zero in Varvarin - both the municipality, and communal services, and the health center, and even to ask Bratislava Gašić if he is in a hurry to go to the church where he put his picture and expects him to kneel before him.
Vučić explained to her that asphalt is expensive and is not stolen, but saved. "You are tall, but the small muscles around you are nibbling slowly," said the lady.
A collection of stories could be written about this visit, but there is no need. Just a few more dashes. In the full hall, only one man holds two signs: "We are all Aleksandar Vučić" and "I give my life, I don't give the president"; he's asking for a road, he doesn't need asphalt. Another surrounded by balloons "Vučić, my president" has no drinking water, one thanks Bruce for getting a gondola, but says there is no playground. There was also one who was nervous to address the big boss.
In a way, it was sad to see the decision-maker repeating phrases that the state is not a toy and not a handful of oats, he will guard the tricolor... And he promises free textbooks, but he himself says that there is nothing for nothing because it is paid for through other things. And everyone is just cursing the state, and Vučić is a shorter word for a letter (who came up with this diamond), so let them curse him. And he will solve everything, don't just whine, he says. Maybe it's not a fair comparison, but that two-day broadcast on the national frequency was painfully reminiscent of that popular video known as "I didn't go to school", when Bica and Đeljana will start school tomorrow. He who believes, believes.
Arrests out of the blue, banishment from the country, beatings... All this happened to us in the last week alone. The Serbian Progressive Party, born from the foam left behind by their spiritual father Vojislav Šešelj, is returning to its roots. I can't escape from myself
"The levers of power are not in their hands," said Bishop Grigorije. "But there is something in the Holy Scriptures that I like very much, and that is that the power of God is revealed in weakness. So, all worldly power is on one side. And on the other side, in the hands of these young men and women is the weakness of this world. But in their weakness, the power of God or God's justice appears. That is why they are at such a great advantage."
The regime and its media have been trumpeting the "civil war" for months, and the government is the only one that has a patent for peace and stability - of course, with the help of the propaganda machine and the use of force. "It is a propaganda tactic of SNS that says: 'violence is everywhere, terrorists surround us, but we are here to save you,'" explains communication professor Jelena Kleut for "Vreme".
Students and citizens who accompany them on these walking feats, were welcomed as the most native together with those who came the day before from other places. A dove of peace was also released on the stage next to the promenade along the river - this symbolic gesture of the two students is the most impressive gesture of understanding and respect between the Bosniak and Serbian peoples since the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia
The three-day parliament for the promotion of Aleksandar Vučić and his Movement for the People and the State was realistically a fiasco. But it was first of all conceived as a media spectacle for regime television directed by court promoter Željko "DJ Žeks" Mitrović, with scenography and iconography adapted to the Serbian political market.
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
The return of radical violence subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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