Photo: Bastian Wiedenhaupt on pixabayIn Berlin I could hear that there are no viable solutions with an autocrat at the helm and that there is no substitute for democracy in the form of a stabilocracy. Yes, I think you can call it a policy change
The last visit to Berlin a few days ago encouraged me once again to address the question: where did the pro-European Serbia and the pro-European Europe stand?
The president of the foreign policy committee of the Bundestag, a social democrat, Michel Roth said that for 10 years, the wrong policy of the German government towards the Western Balkans has been pursued. Stabilocracy, as a political system tested on us by Angela Merkel, did not produce the expected results, but what was actually expected? Stability? Were the great ambitions to democratize the Western Balkans and be part of the European political space replaced by only one ambition: not to go to war with each other every few decades? Then how did that idea push the one most prone to adventures that are dangerous to the lives of others to the top of the political scene, for which he showed a special talent even in the 1990s?
For the sake of the expected stability, the non-fulfillment of European Union standards in Serbia was deliberately turned a blind eye, so that an arsonist unrestrained by such trivialities could engage in firefighting. Matters for Serbia's European future are further complicated by the transfer of stabilocracy to autocracy in the performance of Aleksandar Vučić. The assessment of a high official of the Bundestag that such a policy was also wrong is valid if it means a change of that policy. In Berlin I could hear that there are no sustainable solutions with an autocrat at the helm and there is no substitute for democracy in the form of a stabilocracy. Yes, I think you can call it a policy change.
It's time for change
I believe that I also understood the messages of the members of the Bundestag, who deal with the issue of the Western Balkans through the competent parliamentary committee, that the crisis between Serbia and the EU did not start with the divergence in foreign policy due to the non-introduction of sanctions against Russia, that crisis is now only sufficiently visible to everyone and that is fundamental the difference. Suppression of the media, corruption on an enormous scale and the criminalization of society in Serbia are only now becoming a topic for European officials, even though the government of Aleksandar Vučić existed all the time.
The positive reports of European bureaucrats about Serbia's progress, which came with the idea of preserving that little bit of stability, meant sacrificing the authentic support of Serbian citizens committed to the idea of European values and further integration into the EU, and on the other hand, it did not even give birth to that stability, on the contrary. In Germany, among social democrats today, one can see what Bosnia and Herzegovina and its elections look like when Aleksandar Vučić tries to influence them. It seems to them that Sbia is destabilizing the region. It is clear from the German Government how Montenegro looks when Aleksandar Vučić tries to discredit the idea of their European future, since he had previously implemented it in Serbia very dedicatedly. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's adviser on foreign affairs, Mr. Wallau, sees that the Open Balkans is adapting only to the narrow interests of remaining in power, but not to the acceleration of the European integration process.
When the former president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, says that the Democratic Party is fundamentally important for Serbian democracy, I understand that we are not speaking politely, because we agreed that stabilocracy, as a ten-year-old failed concept intended for Serbia, did not imply either strong or weak opposition in the Serbian parliament - stabilocracy is in Aleksandar Vučić's performance, it meant no opposition, its absolute non-existence.
Our fellow social democrats understood us that today the Democratic Party exists despite the idea that it must be destroyed. That is precisely why we clearly understood the general secretary of the ruling Social Democratic Party, that we were and remained their strategic partners every time Serbia really moved towards Europe. This time, all of them together unequivocally assured us that it is time for Serbia to start again.
The author is a DS MP and a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs
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