Game of thrones

Despite the fact that Vucic lies as soon as he speaks, it seems that he doesn’t always do it out of habit, but has to improvise while waiting for instructions. The journalists have been asking him about the ministers in the new government, coalition with SPS, Ceda and some others for months, and, every time, he says he doesn’t know anything about it, as if it was up to someone else to decide. And it turned out it was. To hide this, the technical prime minister passed the time by “lamenting” about the government, which basically meant that he was saying whatever came to his mind. He mentioned that he’s waiting for the famous assembly meeting of his party, talked about how he’s not interested in coalitions, how he’ll talk to Dacic, who’s been waiting patiently, but that he “doesn’t respond to blackmail”. He said that he would negotiate with all parties which didn’t insult him and reject the possibility of negotiations in advance. When asked whether the government will be an expert one, he said that he’s “close to combative government” constituting of the most combative ones, whatever that means; he doesn’t want party calculations, he wants a team which is going to invest a lot of energy without speculating about the next elections; those with particular interests are also not welcomed, because his goal is a Serbia united. He will bring the government closer to the people by squatting in army barracks and talking to the citizens from 5 to 8 a.m. and then, as soon as they leave, he’ll start working on their problems. But, after only five minutes, he changed his opening hours and said that he’ll be talking to the citizens from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

I thought that all this talk was just his usual stalling to make it appear as if he’s got the last say in everything and, once again, demonstrate his power and humiliate the miserables waiting for his call. That’s why I didn’t read those boring articles full of Vucic’s whining and ever new bluffs about the government. I noticed that he uses a lot of conditional sentences, i.e. saying what he would like, as if his wishes were one thing and the reality another. At the last press conference, Zorana Mihajlovic and Nikola Selakovic stood behind him, which made the press wonder whether these two will hold on to their ministries. Vucic literally said: “I would like that, but we are yet to discuss it”. When the press mentioned Dacic’s alleged blackmail, Vucic said that Nikola and Zorana must be laughing now. Both the two of them and the foreigners know that he doesn’t respond to blackmail and added that “it’s not wise to use the language of blackmail and ultimatums when talking to the Serbian prime minister”.

And this was the whole point. All those tirades – combative government, squatting in army barracks, getting the government closer to the citizens, speculations about coalitions, the right way to talk to the Serbian prime minister and that cynical remark on breakthrough in the case of Savamala (breakthrough not regarding the investigation on illegal demolition in Hercegovacka Street and dead institutions, but regarding the use of ski masks – a shift from president Milosevic’s arrest to benign help with demolishing illegally built buildings) – ended in an unexpected and urgent visit to Moscow, which was, naturally, private, i.e. for medical attention. This was not the first time that he had to rush to a doctor in Moscow. This time, he was actually waiting for this “examination”, i.e. for Putin to call when he has time to personally deal with Serbian government. And this time, Moscow’s interest was bigger, since they’ve put in a lot of effort to formalize direct Russian influence in the government, parliament, media and expansion of Russian parties and associations.

So, what have we learned about these foreign blackmails? There aren’t many details, information is general, and Moscow’s expectations were gently landed in the form of political and economic cooperation, in order to avoid sounding insulting. Putin talked to Vucic about the constitution of the government and said that Russia expects to see serious people in the new government who will contribute to development of the relationship between the two countries, adding that his party’s allies have also gotten the necessary number of seats. Vucic said that Belgrade will do everything in its power and added that “we feel that it’s our honor and obligation to do everything to further develop all aspects of our relationship with Russia”.

And that’s how the whole conundrum about the government ended. Someone asked why Vucic had lied about going to Moscow for medical attention, when it was clearly a lie. One lie more or less, it doesn’t matter, but he couldn’t have said that he was going to Moscow to constitute the Serbian government. We know that the prime minister doesn’t like blackmail and pressure, because that’s not the way to talk to the Serbian prime minister. Dacic also knows this very well, that’s why he was waiting for Vucic’s “examination” to elegantly walk into the government. Since there are Russian MPs and a lot of Putin’s fans in the parliament, there will probably be Russian ministers, maybe even an office for Russian relations. Just to create a balance, since we already have an EU integration office.

To conclude. In my opinion, Serbia was kicked out of the European league, due to its lack of capability, just like Russia. These unsuccessful Europeans will meet in a Eurasian league to curse the enemies of orthodoxy, Serbia, and Russia and wish for the destruction of the West. This is already happening in our mainstream media. We root for fascists to win the elections in EU countries, since they’re the only ones who can help us resolve our national interests, because we think alike. Together with Putin, we root for Trump in order to embarrass the US. We’re both against Hilary, since she hates both Serbia and Russia. That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised at this national-autocratic capitalism in which we live, but get up and try to leave the sinking ship. Not only by fighting for democracy, transparency and rule of law, but also by standing tall and starting the new national policy in which we won’t need illusions about Russia and European fascists defending Kosovo and Serbian territories. Then we would be able to constitute our governments here, according to our needs and goals.

Translated by Marijana Simic

Peščanik.net, 02.06.2016.