Basketball players the national team of Serbia, led by one of the biggest aces of world basketball today, Nikola Jokić, returned to Serbia with bent tails on September 7, after a surprising and early elimination at the European Championship, namely by the Lithuanian airline - Air Serbia did not have a free plane for that return date. However, the very next day, a special charter left for Riga in order to return to Serbia.fansAleksandar Vučić. They were in Lithuania at state expense and on a special task - preventing shouts against the president of Serbia and "pumping" as such. There was everything: threats and attacks on Serbian fans, expulsion of families and friends of players from the seats behind our players' bench so that Vučić's "fans" could sit there, and, in general, pressure on Serbian basketball players during games, as well as other misdeeds.
Was the rush and the need to urgently return the so-called "fans" to the home base caused by the news about the sold-out Crvena zvezda stadium on September 9, where the Serbian national team played against the English national team? In other words, was it estimated that shouts against the president could again be found on television and on social networks, so someone should have prevented that?
Actually, who are these people? Loyalists? To what? Maybe paid progressive thugs?
Finally, how many are there and what are they for?
BLOOD OATH
In his pre-New Year's address to the public last year, Aleksandar Vučić, appearing on TV "Prva" in an appropriately cheerful, festive mood, mentioned "loyalists" for the first time. And by the way, to one of the host's questions. He later clarified that it was a wing of the SNS that met on a Tuesday in a small church where they swore allegiance to him in blood.
He went on to say that he can only speak positively about them, although they are still a bit extreme for his taste.
He also mentioned a bizarre detail: that there were 1019 of them at that founding "conference" and blood oath. Pride also swore that they would never allow a coalition with the "yellow scum". Vučić then said that the number of loyalists has quickly grown to 17000 members since its foundation, and among them are his brother and another family member.
This caused public uproar, because it sounded like a formalization of the confirmation that the Vučić brothers have some kind of personal guard made up of semi-criminals, but also people on the edge and on the other side of the law. That guard would not shy away from intimidation and severe beatings in the interests of their employers. Of course, in return they would gain some kind of material benefit or exemption from criminal responsibility for the committed acts.
Vučić answered the opposition and international actors with the half-sentence that those most loyal to him swear with their blood that they will not be with the "yellows" and that then the current idea of a transitional government is out of the question.
INTIMIDATION METHODS
With the launch of "loyalists" during the holiday season, when citizens have more time to socialize, an intensive operation to intimidate the public began. This type of intimidation is explained by author Robert Greene in a book 33 warfare strategies, through five basic models that Serbian citizens had the opportunity to see since the first week of March:
Surprise with a bold maneuver is the conquest and usurpation of the space in front of the Presidency of Serbia. A small group of students close to the authorities occupied Pionirski Park, set up tents there and presented their demands, the main of which is to allow them to study. Behind that display, the park was occupied by "boys" in black and with caps. Soon the park was reorganized into a paramilitary camp, fortified with fences, and a little later with tractors.
method reversed threats it meant Vučić showing the enemy (students and rebellious citizens) how ruthless he is and how he is not afraid of them. This method is argued with photographs of people in the park armed with sticks, hammers and other tools of violence.
method act unpredictably and unreasonably it is based on the fact that no one likes to fight against people who are unpredictable and have nothing to lose. Thus, in his almost daily television appearances, Vučić often looked like a person losing control. The expected effect was to intimidate the opponents, but at the same time to arouse sympathy among his voters because, well, he is a man of flesh and blood, emotional to the point that, just like them, he is very hurt by the injustice of the blockade.
The fourth method is play on natural human fear, represents the sum of all previous methods of intimidation and is very effective, especially when they start to tell stories about who came to Pionirski Park and what they are ready for.
The fifth method, creating a fearsome reputation bully or a man surrounded by violent people who are just waiting for a sign to scatter, beat and outwit the protesters, is an integral part of Vučić's ruling technology and there are not many of his public addresses in which he managed to skip emphasizing the violent nature of his personality. From hunting stories from the days of fans, to alleged fights in the streets of more recent date.
photo: gavrilo andrićIN ĆACILEND, AMONG YOUR OWN: Andrej Vučić
ALL VUCIC'S "GUYS"
All in all, the occupation of Pionirski Park, along with rows of tractors surrounding the park, masked and armed people in the park and the creation of panic as those there are ready to do anything to defend the government of Aleksandar Vučić, helped prevent the protest rally on March 15, the largest ever held in Serbia, from leading to a serious shakeup of the government. From the beginning, the students in front of the House of the National Assembly directed the crowd of citizens, which was coming from all sides, towards Slavia. Thus, they made it impossible for the protesters to "boil" or some nervous or infiltrated group to start a conflict with fake students in the park. In the end, the protest was ended by the use of banned sound weapons.
When you take a closer look at the photos taken on March 15, along with the routine identification of loyalists from the park, you can quickly come to the conclusion that the progressive general mobilization in the entire country managed to gather only a few thousand "guys", as Vučić likes to emphasize in street and fan jargon. There were mostly employees in public companies and public administration, who were put on caps and phantoms to make them look dangerous. Of course, employees of companies for the protection of persons and facilities are also engaged, that is, their physical and technical security. These are usually "guys" whose appearance serves as a deterrent. Finally, there were some former fans in Ćaciland, as well as people from the north of Kosovo, Republika Srpska and Montenegro. It was said that the state leadership was not satisfied with the response and that it remained unclear how an opportunity like this, where "the job is good and the money is easy" did not attract more "boys".
Wanting to somehow regain the initiative, take over the streets and show who is the boss, the authorities, after several delays, organized their rally in Belgrade on April 12. That rally was supposed to restore the damaged self-confidence of the progressives, who had previously recorded a good number of losses throughout Serbia, with their numbers, bravery, fiery slogans and the "biggest" flag of Serbia. The government got the biggest slap in the face when officials in Nis fled in front of the protesters, when an enraged Vučić "thundered" from the Nais hotel and threatened to come to Nis in person. However, he wisely changed his mind and returned to the villa "Bokeljka" in Belgrade.
Until those events, the progressives had been hearing for years that they were the strongest and inviolable. They were lulled into that feeling by Vučić himself, "fair and fair". With daily explanations of all situations, promises of well-being and threats to dissenters, he maintained the appearance of enormous strength. However, he was belied by images of angry citizens chasing progressive officials through the streets. That had to change urgently.
"Our Serbia needs your help. You must not be silent. Each of us has an obligation to fight. Peacefully and democratically. We have fallen many times in the past, but we stood up and won every time. Serbia will win. All united together in Belgrade, April 12, at 19 p.m.," said Vučić in a three-minute video he posted on Instagram ahead of the Belgrade gathering of SNS and their partners and sympathizers.
On April 12, in the afternoon hours, the progressive media enthusiastically reported: "Loyalists have reached the city center - look at the magnificent sights." That magnificent scene was made up of tall guys who carried the Serbian flag with the coat of arms and the inscription "Loyalists" in front of them. Passing through the Terasija tunnel, they shouted: three, two, one - Serbia, and many times like that. Connoisseurs of opportunities in city gyms and MMA clubs claimed that the first rows of this column are made up of those people for whom going to a rally and a little strutting around the street served their lifestyle.
Then that group also drowned in the grayness and inauthenticity of the whole event. Many sympathizers of the government remembered him mainly for the outbursts of anger of the citizens of Belgrade as they made their way to their buses in fear.
After this counter-attack, the regime did not insist too much on the term "loyalists".
The summer passed, and the tent settlement near the presidency lived its life behind fences coated with kolomase,
toi-toi toilets evaporated heavy smells, in tents on the street next to the park, and across the street from the House of the National Assembly, SNS members were on duty. They were provided by "guys" with caps, casually tossing at the girls. All of them were watched over by ten policemen in new uniforms with the inscription IJP. When the students or choirs had an action, the Police Brigade or the Gendarmerie squad arrived.
GUYS FROM RIGA
In the middle of August, the government started heating up cold civil war by sending "boys" to actions - first in Bačka Petrovac and Vrbas, in order to provoke the locals into peaceful protests. Gathered in front of the SNS premises, the "guys" attacked citizens and journalists, while the police defended them or they worked side by side, in agreement. Again, they were people with a recognizable appearance and equipment: pyrotechnics, hats, poles, telescopic batons, but it was immediately noticed that they could not cover all the points, especially when the citizens started coming to the protests ready to fight. Stretched thin, tired and worn out, the police became more and more violent, and the peak of police repression was on September 5 in Novi Sad.
The match against the England national team scheduled for September 9 did not have too much competitive significance. The guests were not favorites only on paper, but that was not why all eyes were on the packed stands. Namely, at the Crvena Zvezda stadium until then, steel discipline reigned behind the "Star Above All" screen: organized and "ordinary" fans claimed that sports and politics should not be mixed, although it was Vučić who, with his politics and also personally, made it possible for them to watch the biggest European clubs in the Champions League at his stadium and celebrate the 11 championships won in the last 13 years.
But as soon as the "pumping" and chanting against the President of Serbia started in the eastern and western stands, the people from Riga started threatening and beating the spectators, many of them with children. On the photographs of those disgusting scenes, "guys" from Kosovo close to Milan Radojicic were identified. There was an MMA fighter from Podgorica whose career lasted 37 seconds. The same "guy" was seen a few days later in Bajna Bašta shooting at citizens during a protest walk.
It should be mentioned that similar scenes were once seen on the same hill, just 900 meters away, at the Partizan stadium. Then, due to offensive chants against Vučić, Belivuk sent punitive expeditions to the side stands of the stadium. Hand on heart, such an expedition once returned to the south stand in a race and a mess.
In general, Aleksandar Vučić is always ready to defend the violence of his "boys", including that at sports events in Serbia and abroad. But, as with extras at progressive gatherings, there is no luck with thugs either: they are few and far between. If they didn't have a police cordon behind them, the people would have chased them down a long time ago. This is how they depend on the tattooing of those who - if there was law and justice in Serbia - would have to arrest them. Simply put, both they and those who hire them are miserable.
