The affair with the wiretapping of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is not abating, new names emerge every day, and who and why recorded more than 1500 conversations in which Vučić is one of the interlocutors, is increasingly unclear. The only thing that is completely clear, but not emphasized loudly enough, is: Vučić was not eavesdropped on by the representatives of the opposition or the independent media, which Prime Minister Ana Brnabić alluded to several times immediately after the formation of the current Government of Serbia.
Everything we know so far, and we only know as much as the pro-regime tabloids give us, points to Vučić's closest environment. As we said, new names are emerging, and these days an old, well-known one has emerged. We are talking about the leader of the Serbian Right, Miša Vacić, who pops out of a box every now and then, and appears in places and events so unusual that he somewhat resembles Forrest Gump.
And while poor Forrest is simply inconspicuous in the whirlwind of historical events and finds himself in them quite by accident, Vacić is present very deliberately, but his presence is always somehow covered up, hidden or its importance is diminished. This phenomenon is not unknown, many people have that one acquaintance, friend, a little strange relative, whom they would not really give up, but it is not really something to show off. With such people, you go for coffee somewhere where no one knows you, but he is not among the guests at celebrations, weddings and birthdays.
Vacić "surfaced" this week thanks to the vice-president of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) Marinika Tepić, who went public with documents showing that Vucic was not at the meeting, but that, it seems, he chatted on the phone several times with those who were at the meeting. they were. One of them is the hero of our story, Miša Vacić.
JUST TO HEAR YOUR VOICE
In the official note from the hearing of the MUP officer (in the capacity of a citizen) that Tepić submitted to the public, it can be seen that Vacić was subject to secret communications surveillance measures on several occasions. Once in 2017 (it is unclear why), and then continuously in 2018 and 2019 due to the suspicion that he is a person involved in extremism. The interrogated MUP officer was in charge of monitoring Vacić's communications, and in his testimony, Miša Vacić appears to be a rather sad phenomenon. Namely, judging by that note, he persistently called the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and his brother Andrej, sent hundreds of messages, called, wrote, wrote, called, and they would only sometimes call him back, chat with him and - apparently - hang out. him. There is no indication in the official note about whether they answered his messages.
When Tepić brought this to the public, Vučić confirmed something like that, saying that he was called by various people, including Vacić, whose phone he answers once out of a thousand times that he calls him.
However, it would be completely wrong to conclude that Vacić has nothing to do with the ruling structures. If someone ever writes the history of the media scene in Serbia in the first decades of the 21st century, it would be convenient to note that it is Vacić who is responsible for the fact that guests on the TV show Novi dan N1 have a glass of water in front of them while they are in front of the cameras in the live program. In January 2017, Vacić was a guest on this show as an advisor in the Office of the Government of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija. The head of the office at that time was Marko Đurić, now the Serbian ambassador to the United States of America. The reason was that Vacić, at that time the leader of the "1389" movement, published a photo from the Government of Serbia on social networks and wrote that he works in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, and then Marko Đurić said that it was a fabrication and slander. Nevertheless, in the now legendary Đurić train painted with icons, which headed towards Kosovo and reached approximately Borča, Vacić handed out business cards with the Office's logo.
Visiting N1, Vacić confirmed that he works in the Office and that, since his position is not provided for by systematization, he was hired on the basis of the Work Agreement. When asked how he got the job, he referred to "ten years of activism around Kosovo" (in the fall of 2009, he served 30 days in the Padina scaffold for illegal possession of pistols, slingshots and phantom guns) and the recommendation of a "Serb from Kosovo." The question of presenter Minja Miletić who invited him to come to work in the Office for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, caused an unusual reaction to say the least from a man whom the public knew until then as a "dangerous character". At first he didn't understand the question, and then he stuttered for twelve minutes straight, coughed nervously, claimed that he was being "lynched by the liberal media and the civil part of the public", invoked the right to work and finally begged for a glass of water. He only managed to say that he dedicated his life to Kosovo and Metohija and that there is no school that would qualify him for that duty.
Today we know without a doubt that Miša Vacić was employed in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, that Marko Đurić said that Vacić was not employed there, and then Prime Minister Vučić did not know where Vacić worked. This again leads us to suspect that Vacić is "that fellow that the whole society is ashamed of". At the time of his guest appearance on N1 and his employment at the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Vacić was still on probation for possessing a weapon before the 2009 Pride Parade. Namely, in 2013, he was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year, with a probationary period of four years. In the N1 program, he himself admitted that his verification period has not yet expired. This makes the whole thing even more strange, because in Serbia, for any type of state engagement (even for a contract of employment, even when it comes to employment in the organization of a foreign state), it is necessary to submit a certificate that you have not been criminally convicted.
TRAGICOMIC TURNS
Whoever and however employed him, Vacić was soon dismissed from the Office for Kosovo and Metohija due to a violation of work discipline. However, our hero did not let himself be discouraged, so in 2018 he founded the movement "Serbian Right". Already in September 2019, he won the first councilor in Medveđa, in the local elections held there. The unfortunate Misha couldn't even do that discreetly, instead, for the umpteenth time, he embarrass himself by uploading on the networks the footage of the printing of ballots and himself asking about the list of users of the soup kitchen.
It was neither the first nor the last time that Vacić published something and then deleted it. Let's say, right before the engagement in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, he posted on Facebook, then deleted, a photo of Ron Haviv, which shows a member of Arkan's Serbian National Guard kicking a dead woman in the head. Misha wrote: "Refugees, welcome!"
The last such outburst by Miša Vacić happened at the beginning of this month in - Svinjec. On his YouTube channel, Vacić posted (and, of course, deleted) a video in which he is seen and heard calling pigs by the names of famous women from public life in a piggery in a village near Pirot. Vacić, in fact, "baptized" the piglets in the piggery, calling them by the names of ministers Gordana Čomić, Darija Kisić Tepavčević, SSP Vice-President Marinika Tepić and leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina Nenad Čanka. The video was removed after it was condemned by the Commissioner for Equality, Brankica Janković, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Zorana Mihajlović, also reacted.
STATE STARLET OR FREE SHOOTER
The question that remains hanging in the air is whether, how much, and with whom exactly Vacić is connected in the state leadership. Yes, some female ministers in the Government of Serbia are the targets of his outbursts, but his closeness with Marko Đurić, who went from being a "little guy" relatively quickly, to a "big fish" is undeniable. Also, the Belgrade premises of Vacić's "Serbian Right" are located at Gavrila Principa 18, where SNS Savski venac used to be located. Later, these premises were given to Vacić and the even more right-wing, even more extreme movement "Leviathan".
Also, after Marinika Tepić's announcements, the tabloid machinery joined in the defense of Vacić. He immediately appeared on Happy Television with Milomir Marić, and the tabloids spectacularly titled the guest appearance (in which God knows what was said) with: "The man who was on the other side of the wire came to Marić and revealed everything!" He did not reveal anything, but anyway, only the title matters.
"Vreme" has written on several occasions so far about Miša Vacić's connections with the very unusual organization DBA (see "Vreme" no. 1479, no. 1533 and no. 1555). They have two types of activities in common - advocating for the so-called citizen patrols and some strange visits to elementary schools. The DBA, with the claim that they have a recommendation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (true, at the time when the MUP was headed by Nebojša Stefanović), sent offers to elementary school principals to give lectures to parents and children about the harmful effects of sects, drugs, and the like. Vacić, on the other hand, attended the "Jelena Ćetković" School Day celebration in Zvezdara in May 2018, and took pictures with the children. The worried parents contacted N1, and the school principal said that he was not invited at all. Vacić, who brought the board game "Battle on the Drina" to the children, announced on Facebook that "only miscreants can interfere with the education of children with patriotic values through the game", and later told N1 that he came without an invitation, that is, to celebrate the Day he learned about the school from a friend.
Speaking of the Drina, we mustn't forget November 2019 and Vacić's establishment of the board of the Serbian Right in Šabac, from where he told the then mayor Nebojša Zelenović that he would deal with him like any traitor, "down the Cer and into the Drina".
Another activity that connects Vacić and the DBA is citizen patrolling, with Vacić bragging about how he made a "civil arrest" in New Belgrade while walking his dog. He allegedly saw the assailant "throwing a grandmother", so he ran after him. "At that moment, he tore the gold chain from the woman's neck and tried to steal her bag as well." While I was running towards them, I loudly shouted 'what are you doing, bro' and then he ran away," Vacić described the event on Facebook and added that he ran after the thief for as much as 20 meters. Then, allegedly, he knocked him to the ground, overpowered him and, with the help of the occupants of a nearby building, called the police, and handed over the miscreant. The police, however, claim that they did not have any reports from that location that evening, or on a similar occasion. Whatever happened, it's a good thing that Vacić only had a dog with him as a weapon. Although he has already been convicted for illegal possession of a gun, the MUP member whose statement was published by Marinika Tepić said that in one conversation he heard Vacić's girlfriend asking where he went with the gun, and he replied: "To earn bread."
