Rule by tricks: Monument to Zoran Đinđić

"Boss, the thing about the Djindjic monument is genius," said one of the young SNS vice-presidents. "When did you come up with that?"

“Well, during the interview. Learn: improvisation is the mother of Serbian politics," answered Vučić.

I invented the dialogue, of course, but it is not far from the mind that it happened. Everything else is far from the mind. If necessary, they will erect a monument to Saša Janković during his lifetime.

Vučić, the contemporary prince Miloš, whom he quotes every now and then - more often, lately, than he quotes Weber - is all in the symbolic plane and drags behind him a sack full of similar tricks, such as the one with the monument. It is difficult to catch him by both the head and the tail and this is considered a skill.

Vesna Pešić wrote for "Peščanik" in the author's text: "Vučić won the extraordinary elections, but for strange reasons the angry fight against the Democratic Party continues to flare up. In the middle of the Savamala affair, from which he doesn't know how to get out, and somehow he has to, Vučić dropped the bombshell that his people will erect a monument to Zoran Đinđić in 2018 on Studentski trg. DS did not remember to do that, so who else will fix the mistake but Vučić and SNS. In the nervousness surrounding Savamala and in the uta-ta style, it somehow turned out that this monument should serve as the main weapon in the final showdown with civil Serbia, and apparently Đinđić himself. We will steal that Đinđić from you as well. Once it falls into our hands and we mutilate it, and you will see how we will fry your soup with Legion and friends...

As a regime comes to power, the monuments symbolizing the 'predecessors' are taken down, and new symbols are erected according to the taste of the rulers. Now we have an unusual phenomenon that deviates from the current practice. SNS has become accustomed to erecting rival monuments, in order to steal symbols with which it actually has nothing to do. From the combative tone and vocabulary, it could be concluded that this is what the Đinđić monument is about.

In the latest SNS announcement, it is said that the DS forgot to erect a monument to Djindjic, that it squandered its chance that lasted for eight years, and now the Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vučić are to blame for the false democrats. They forgot about the monument because they only cared about their 'pockets and wallets, luxury villas and expensive cars'. There is added the harsh truth that the false democrats did not think of Đinđić while they sat in comfortable armchairs and held power at all levels, because they were too busy with their combinations, fixing tenders and deals, looting state funds and stealing people's money at every step. '.'

If the thing about the monument was improvisation, the attack by joint forces on the weakened DS is a constant of Vučić's policy. Why is that so?

First of all, the "yellow dredger" must be the on-call culprit for a long time for everything that the "progressives" failed to fix or recover during the four years they were effectively in power. They are a great alibi for their own incompetence.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, in the future, if it consolidates, not only because of its tradition but also because of its potential, the Democratic Party could be the main competitor to the progressives in some of the next election cycles, especially for the Belgrade City Assembly, which are expected next year.

It is, thirdly, a party that, despite all the quarrels and divisions, seems to have managed to preserve the basic infrastructure, which potentially makes it a dangerous opponent if the party elections, next fall, for the president and party bodies do not turn into a circus under Vučić's tent.

But Vučić's government, at least on the internal level, is entering a phase in which it does not help to overdo it in style - and what did you do before. It is not very clear who is served by buying time in the "Savamal case", because there is no magician who will be able to hide this case under the carpet in front of the public.

The public is primarily interested in the orderer and the organizer, and the longer the government resists informing us, the more this case goes beyond the domain of law, even justice, and becomes a huge moral problem that determines the public in the long run.

If the Democratic Party succeeds in regaining the status of the moral pillar of Serbian politics, then it will once again become a serious competitor on the political stage. But there is a long way to go and it depends more on that party than on Vučić's tricks.

And finally, a quote from Dejan Anastasijević's text titled "Monument" in the "Comment of the Day" section on the website "Vremena:"

"Anyway, Đinđić will get the monument, and Vučić will unveil it." The competition for the conceptual solution has not yet been announced, but no one should be surprised if the winner is an artist who presents the prime minister as something taller than he was in life, with slightly fuller lips and fingertips folded into a pyramid."