Like a pop star exulting at the end of the 272nd farewell concert, Aleksandar Vučić kept saying to the audience at the counter-rally - "I love you endlessly". And it won't stop. All that was missing was for him to still make hearts with his index fingers and thumbs and to send kisses by pursing his lips.
The reaction in front of the stage was wet, literally to the bare skin. But there are always some compassionate souls, so here and there you could hear a compassionate "Aco Srbine". However, "Aco mi te volimo" was left out. This kind of expression of love was experienced only by Sloba Milošević at his counter rally in 1996, and even then God does not know how it sounded.
The rain contributed, but Vučić would have done without it the mother of all rallies was a fiasco. Is there anyone for whom the daily speeches of the President of Serbia in the last month do not sound similar to the motor of a mixer or grinder from a nearby construction site? At first, that noise attracts attention, then it bothers and irritates, and then the person Googles it. This is to say that Vučić didn't say anything that the public doesn't already know. That's why, even if the weather was ideal, the counter rally would remain a monotonous and boring performance by a performer who persistently ignores trends and changes on stage. The huge stage, screens and spotlights further enhanced the gloomy impression of the gathering.
Read more: Vucic's "counter rally": Organized and unorganized madness
However, some critics highlight the brighter moments of Vučić one man show. He admitted, for example, that his personal policy regarding Kosovo had hit a wall and that now he has nowhere to go. He also repented for insulting tens and tens of thousands of participants in anti-violence demonstrations, but that insult was callous and ill-advised. A comic element of the performance is Vučić's decision to become the president of all citizens of Serbia in the sixth year of his mandate. And the sentimental part - the self-appointment as the main sandwich maker and bot out of solidarity with their party zapatis who caught, paid, blackmailed, persuaded and brought in those martyrs, excuse me - counter-demonstrators.
By the way, maybe one of those wet and frozen people - while their wet bodies are evaporating on the buses and dripping from their noses - asked those coordinators and commissioners what in God's name were they doing in Belgrade? Why did they take part in a demonstration whose goal was to prove how far Serbia is from any normality? Or, as accomplices in matchmaking, did they convince the naive that weakness is strength? Perhaps with their number they confirm that there is no longer an intermediary between the president of Serbia and the people, in the spirit of King Alexander's proclamation during the Sestojanuary dictatorship in 1929?
Namely, Vučić's leaving the head of the Serbian Progressive Party and forming a comprehensive Movement for the State can hardly be anything other than a new contribution to the strengthening of authoritarianism, populism and demagoguery.
All in all, just as Putin has a war in Ukraine, so the president of Serbia got "the biggest rally in history". Both of them have no idea what to do with it.
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