The long-advertised meeting of June 27 Vucic began in the style of Baja Mali Knindža: "Here are the brothers from Doboj!", "Here are Mila Dodik and Milan Knežević!", "Greetings to the brothers with Kosova - they came too!" All that was missing was for the bass player and the drummer to keep the rhythm - let's say a two - and for the latter to occasionally knock on the shower while shouting names.
Afterwards, Vučić said that he would resign in "a few weeks" and, in accordance with the plagiaristic nature of SNS, he personally proposed their future slogan - "United Serbia".
This is all citizens need to know about the progressive party in Belgrade.
HOW TO BE “NOBODY”
Due to this short-term manifestation, Prime Minister Đuro Macut - by no means his fault - fell into a bigger problem. It's not that anyone thinks he's wondering about anything, but maybe he's deciding on something anyway - it's not like people are paying him to sit in the office like a ficus, right? But whatever initiative Macut starts now or proposes something, Glišić, Bata Gašić or someone else from the cabinet will always shout at him - "let it go, doctor, let him wait for Vučić".
And he is coming. Surely the head of state and the entire Ćaciland will not resign just like that and become a "nobody", an ordinary citizen without a function? A long time ago prime minister the place where Ana Brnabić, Vučević Novosadski and other young men. He hesitated and hesitated, but finally agreed - what should he do when the party needs him?
However, before Đuri Macuta cancels the tenancy agreement at Nemanjina 11, Vučić must prepare well for the upcoming elections. Because after Slobodan Milošević and Boris Tadić, he reached for resignation from the position of President of the Republic a little less than a year before the end of his mandate. In 2000 and 2012, they believed that, as candidates for re-election, they would strengthen their parties by merging the parliamentary and presidential elections. Due to the Constitution, Vučić no longer has such an option, but his motive is the same. More precisely - he is counting on the people to vote for or against him in any election.
Both Sloba and Boris overestimated their influence and authority, and failed in the elections, each for their own reasons. Is Vučić following in their footsteps? Especially since he was in the foreground longer than both of them - Milosevic from 1987 to 2000, and Tadic from 2004 to 2012.
COUNCIL MEMBER, PRESIDENT, PRIME MINISTER
No one should teach Vučić the technology of government and, especially, recent political history. But - what is his choice of personnel? I guess he wouldn't have been so upset about the separate local elections this spring if there was someone else in SNS with a minimum of authority and reputation. That is why in Arandjelovac, Bor, Kula and other places he looked like a candidate for every councilor in particular.
It was precisely this breadth of Vučić's back and his determination that he must be in power in every local community that eventually led him to this situation. This means that he has to publicly threaten the officials he personally appointed because of his arrogance and corruption.
Can he really purge his ranks? Not at all. Without these people, he is not allowed to participate in the elections. They are chitluksahibis who secure votes through threats, blackmail and pressure.
If Vučić decides to hold elections for the president of Serbia first, it can be treated as a kind of test. If his chosen one is defeated, the head of state and the entire Ćalenda may immediately sit in the chair of Đura Macuta by being elected by the assembly. Well, the situation is complex, the security of the people and the state is threatened, the fact that he said that he will not be prime minister without an election, but a higher force, a firm request from the party, requests from friends around the world... And the like.
If by some miracle the progressive candidate wins, there will be parliamentary elections right away. Vučić can then claim that this is proof of his victory over the "colored revolution", foreign enemies, domestic traitors and everyone to whom he extended his hand and they refused it...
The combination with holding elections on the same day is considered by some political scientists to be the best option for the progressives. In short - by merging both campaigns under his dominance, Vučić would try to win the parliamentary majority and bring a successor to the Presidency of Serbia on his back. His trump card is his cult of personality. However, there is also the risk that everything will turn out to be double naked, as it was in the case of Milošević and Tadić. Combining the presidential and parliamentary elections is taking off on a mission without a parachute.
THE SEARCH FOR SOMETHING BIG, ANYTHING
At the base of Vučić's announced resignation lies the calculation, brainstorming and exhaustion of political opponents in the hope that, as so many times before, they will divide and divide them.
In that field, he could easily gain the support of a part of the opposition whose primary goal is to continue surviving in the parliamentary benches, but also of various "moral narcissists" who would rather agree to Vučić's rule for decades more than certain public figures on the student list. They are in favor of a referendum atmosphere, but only with close like-minded people; are for catch all politics, but on its own terms; are for change, but only if they lead it...
How significant is this? Or - specifically - can Vučić tear apart the rebellious society? Probably - very little, but it is able to somewhat shift the focus from the main social imperative. And that is the change of the progressive regime.
As long as they are in power, there will be no room for normal political and public life in Serbia, nor for social discussions and ideological confrontations. If they survive, there will also be places for whining, mutual switching and self-pity.
The former DOS did not overthrow Milosevic on a single ideological platform. On the contrary, along with Đinđić and Koštunica, there were also generals Momčilo Perišić and Vuk Obradović, then Nebojša Čović and Dušan Mihajlović, Vladan Batić and Goran Svilanović... No matter how different they were from each other, it was clear to them that they needed every vote against Milosevic. Today it is very similar. (see text on page 22)
THE FIGHT FOR EVERY VOICE
When he tells the progressives that difficult elections await them, Vučić is telling the truth. In order to come out on them, in addition to the discord in the rebellious society, he needs something big, but he can never get there.
By launching the Stalinist persecution for expressing his opinion about the "sound cannon", he enraged the citizens. That operation began and ended with the mistreatment of the military-political commentator Aleksandar Radić and his family. Drawing a target on his back, the regime forced him to leave the country temporarily. Radić is not the only one in this situation - Serbia is once again a country of political emigrants.
It is true that Vučić's rally in Belgrade on June 27 was bigger than the student rally in Kraljevo. But wait a moment, dear reader. For the Belgrade gathering, the regime harnessed the entire state machinery, swindled God knows how much money, detained thousands of paid or blackmailed people and scored a big hit in nothing. If it weren't for all those buses, fences and daily allowances, Vučić would hardly have collected ten percent of the people in front of the National Assembly out of the thirty thousand, as counted by the Archives of Public Assemblies. Quite simply, he no longer expands the electorate, but tries to preserve the one he has left.
The meeting in Kraljevo was something completely different. Citizens attended it voluntarily and at their own expense. The goal was not to show strength - the students already did that at Slavia on May 23, with around two hundred thousand participants at the rally. Kraljevo was part of the continuation of the expansion of the student struggle for every vote. Some are satisfied with the choice of individual speakers and parts of the speeches, while others are not, but it was an event aimed at the broadest sections of the population in the country.
That is why Vučić is tinkering with the election date. No matter what he says and no matter how much he throws dust in people's eyes, he is actually in extortion.
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