In the terrible week, the one that precedes the most terrible and saddest day - Good Friday, when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on the Golgotha hill near Jerusalem, in the Presidency of Serbia he became incarnate for the first time after 40 days of temptation Ivica Dacic – still president Socialist Party of Serbia still Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of Serbia. He said two interesting things, we quote:
"The Socialist Party is indestructible."
"If extraordinary elections were good, the church would have them."
The mention of the church is, of course, ironic, but it is not without meaning. Dacic is inclined to joke (and at his own expense) in the presence of cameras, he likes to be a joker and to send messages in a jovial way that can be interpreted in different ways. The statement connecting the church and the elections is reminiscent of his long-ago statement that sounds like a quote from the cult Italian comic strip Alan Ford: "It's better to be in power all your life, than one day in the opposition."
Dacic's statement that the Party is indestructible sounds like a slogan, but it also speaks for himself, after a difficult recovery from the hospital. There is some truth here: the SPS, created in the summer of 1990 as a symbiosis of the Communist Party and the Socialist Union of Working People, continued the tradition that dates back to 1919 and the founding of the first Communist Party in these regions. Turn it around, it is the only party that has institutional continuity, unlike the Democrats and Radicals, whose work was suspended from 1945 to 1990.
What originated in Vukovar and developed in Lepoglava, steeled itself in the Second World War, experienced world recognition after the war and after the "historic NO to Stalin" in 1948, during the nineties, under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević, transformed into a National Socialist party. The SPS still "rides" today, at least formally, but at the same time it is faced with the biggest threat so far.
It seems that, in a political sense, the embrace of Aleksandar Vučić is more deadly than October 5, and the events that followed the change, and the period up to 2006 when Ivica Dacić took the throne, and Milošević moved from the detention unit in Scheveningen "to the eternal hunting grounds".
THE END OF THE SPS'S GODLY POSITION
This year we celebrate three "jubilees": 20 years since the founding of the Republic of Serbia as an independent state, 20 years since Dacic was at the top of the SPS, and 20 years since the death of Milošević. Under Dacic's leadership, the Party went through an interesting period - always and all the time in power or around it, which could be assessed as his leadership success. He created what Branko Ružić calls a bridge between the two Serbias from a party whose demise was expected. God's position, between democratic and radical Serbia, does not require high ratings, but it needs just enough to bring advantage to one side or the other.
Two and a half decades after the loss of power, the SPS is today, like its leader, struggling not to be submerged in the general political mush surrounding Aleksandar Vučić. In that mess, you can no longer see who is who, nor who is from where, nor who did or was what; only the degree of support for the leader of that political event is measured. It is difficult to call it a coalition, because for a coalition there should still be some principles that political theory knows. It's hard to call it a movement, because no one wants to give up their political identity. It is a political event in which various actors gather around one person, swear allegiance and obedience to him, and do everything in his best interest.
After more than 30 difficult days of hospital treatment, Dacic returned and went to work, both in the government and in the party. At one point it seemed as if he was in a hopeless situation, but luckily for himself and his family, as well as everyone who loves and supports him, he managed to overcome the health crisis. During that time, the party headed by her participated in the elections in ten local governments as part of the joint list "Aleksandar Vučić - Our Family". According to Branko Ružić's statement, the SPS won "slightly fewer mandates than before".
These, it seems, were the first "serious" elections in which the SPS did not have its own list of candidates, and it could seem that, in the way it was done before with the SPO or the SRS, its existence was also closed. Although Dacic leads one of the most important ministries, his mandate served Vučić to further and deeply humiliate and subjugate him, rather than ensure the influence of the "great old Serbian party". Vučić does what Vučić does: he goes and tramples everything in front of him. He managed to find individuals within the SPS who will be satisfied with personal positions, such as Aleksandar Antić or Suzana Paunović, or even earlier Slavica Đukić Dejanović, who will be more loyal to him than to their parent party, all under the slogan of "defense of the state and the system", a favorite phrase of socialists. In the 2017 elections, Dacic did not run for the position of President of Serbia, thus helping Vučić to win in the first round. In return, it seems, he got only that he would not be completely drowned in the monotonous mass of Vučić's political followers, clowns and court fools.
At the same time, the voice of Branko Ružić, an influential leader of the party when it comes to local committees, who formally holds the position of vice president of the party's Main Committee, appeared in the SPS. Always isolated, but consistent, Ružić appeared immediately after the local elections and told his comrades that it was time to save the party from voluntary euthanasia. It does not seem that Ružić accidentally used this term when he called on the SPS not to "self-extinguish" and to do something to preserve its dignity while there are still those who remember the SPS as an independent political option.
SPS: MARRIAGE WITH TWO SERBIAS
Dacic, Ružić and SPS have the unique experience of marriage with two Serbias - the democratic one until 2012, and the authoritarian one after this year. This gives them the opportunity to see where they have a better chance of survival. If the period immediately after October 5 was difficult for them, today it is a long time ago and they can be happy that the government established at that time did not have the strength to deal with the parties responsible for the general disintegration of the state, society and institutions, as well as for war crimes against the civilian population, SPS, JUL and SRS. Even today, there are those who say that when "changes occur", the SPS will not be able to "fly over", but that is more of a revolutionary dream than a political reality. Fortunately for the SPS, although it strongly supports Vučić, the SPS represents the "more beautiful and normal" side of that regime, as they were a kind of political Quasimodo in the coalition with the Democrats.
Coexistence with the progressives made them beautiful, however strange it may sound, because it is almost impossible to compete with the loyalists in inaction and indecency. SPS populism seems like easy talk compared to what is served every day by one who demands absolute support and loyalty. Their responsibility for the collapse of the state system and institutions is almost non-existent - on the contrary, it seems that the institutions, public companies and the like to which the SPS members were assigned still have a chance to be saved from complete collapse. That is why, for example, the sessions of the Belgrade City Assembly do not seem so abnormal under the administration of Nikola Nikodijević compared to the Assembly of Serbia under the administration of Ana Brnabić.
BASIC INSTINCTS OF IVICA DAČIĆ
The time has come for new assessments, and it turned out that Dacic, when he is sober, magically senses what will happen on the political scene in the near future. In this name, these days he caused a storm in the public by publishing the names of those who contacted him while he was sick. That "Dacic's list of support" is something that could particularly annoy Vucic, but it seems that is why it was disclosed. Dacic showed that he is not giving up, that he still believes that he can do something on the political level, so maybe that is why the performances of Branko Ružić, who is openly against this political order in the country, were additionally strengthened. Socialists, that is, what is left of them, are struggling to survive the political calvary into which they were thrown by the "majority partner", but it seems that their strength, as well as their influence at the local level and in the institutions, is decreasing.
They are no longer ideologues and sellers of big stories, such as the long-sold knowledge of "system management". Now that system has been dismantled, and the question arises whether anyone needs them anymore. It seems that for them this year will also be 1933, when in Germany, in addition to Jews, communists were persecuted, so they had to go underground, and later into the forest. If they don't start singing old songs soon, they will end up like Dr. Šešelj - as a dresser or a canabé on Informer TV, without a court and without a verdict. Then Dacic's sentence from the beginning, that SPS is indestructible, will mean nothing. So let's watch and carefully follow what happens after 40 days of absence, facing the biggest fears and demons - what SPS will appear to us after this Easter.
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