The letter I received from A. Vučić

Today, my postman brought me a letter from Aleksandar Vučić. He rang the doorbell, didn't leave it in the mailbox as usual, said "good day" and - swept down the stairs.

A white envelope, without the identity of the sender, in the right upper corner instead of a postage stamp, it says "direct mail", and in the lower left, in small letters, the serial number of the letter is written.

Inside, one leaf. I turn the other page to finally find out who is writing to me, when there - A. Vučić. And everything became clear to me, without having read the letter: that the president of the country is writing to me because I am a pensioner and because he expects me to vote for him because he increased my pension, so it is my turn to repay him in the elections in December. And, I get sick.

The header says "Dear." A generic letter sent to a personal name is an insulting gesture. That's not how it's done. I remember very well that at the time when there were democrats in my municipality, I received letters addressed to me personally, even though they just wanted to brag about what they had done in the previous year.

Then, in this letter, nowhere, not a single word from the beginning to the end, does it say who we "Dear One" are. The president addresses a group of people in the second person plural, and based on the content of the letter, it can be assumed that they are pensioners.

The letter to them consists of three parts, like a school written assignment: an introduction to the topic, its elaboration and a conclusion in which everything becomes clear.

In the introduction, he thanks for the "endless patience" during the "years of reforms", and says that now "the time has come" for "us, as a country" to give back. Given that the letter is signed only with the first and last name as if it were personal, and not, for example, "A. Vučić, President of the Republic of Serbia", I cannot help but notice this identification with the state. By the end of the letter, the singular and plural will alternate, sometimes even in the same sentence.

Elaborating on the topic, he writes about the benefits that the state has provided and will provide to pensioners, again with the same sentences that have already been said a thousand times, and which I will probably hear tonight because the president is also a guest on some television tonight. Because he has something important to tell the people again.

Everything was explained concretely, with data and highlighting how it used to be bad and now it's great, including that the first October increase of 5,5 percent will arrive in a few days.

"These days you will get...", so it says. As far as I know, that increase will arrive with the next pension, so on November 10, and that's not these days. There are 16 days until then. I feel humiliated because Aleksandar Vučić and the state of Serbia do not know that calendar days and retirement days do not have the same measurement units.

The second item of the topic elaboration follows, a paragraph about the pensioner card, which is in fact proof that the state takes care of pensioners "at all times", and the president believes that the pensioners themselves will see "how many benefits it brings". I admit, I still haven't seen it, but it's probably only because I've been using the pensioner's discount at the supermarket for a long time, and services for which I can get a discount on the basis of the card, such as car registration, the annual ticket of the cultural and artistic society, or the spa center in I don't need them in a city where I don't live.

In the conclusion, there is a warning and an invitation to vote for him. "There are important decisions ahead of us" and we "must not destroy what we have created", so we should "elect those people who will take care of each of us, of our Serbia!", it says.

There, loud and clear. Let pensioners know. Because they are old and stupid. And they should be told who to vote for, help them not to deviate from the right path. Because the president of the country they live in thinks that they are not capable of judging who takes care of them and who takes care of themselves.

And what can I say? I regret that I did not save any of Vučić's many previous letters. I could check if the impression is not deceiving me - if it is identical to the previous ones. That the introduction and conclusion were copy-pasted and that only the elaboration was adapted to the current need.

This is an accurate picture of the state's attitude towards those who, as this letter says, "supported their country at times when many turned their heads away from it."

And finally, an anecdote: my neighbor asks me, because I'm a journalist, so I know everything, "why did the pensioners of Block 24 get packages, but we only received Vučić's letter?". He says that SNS activists gave them packages and that they contained salt, sugar, oil, rice, meat sausage, stew, and petit ber biscuits. He also says that the other residents of that block, who are not pensioners, received a package from the same activists with: vitamins, a notebook, a book about the great successes of progressives, a lighter, a chemical can with SNS markings.

I tell her not to worry, the elections are coming and so will the packages. Let her be patient, and the president will thank her later. On patience.

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