SALVATION FOR SNS

In the process of submerging the Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS) of Aleksandar Šapić into the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of Aleksandar Vučić, which should be reached by the end of May, a lot has already happened and seen. After all, when the drowning is over and the fire of new political love has passed, everything will soften and melt, lose details and character, as happened with all the other "drowned" SNS. Šapić intended to, and formally, suddenly jump into power from the opposition. The label that Vučić is a "Trojan horse", which former party comrades from the Democratic Party have been sticking on his forehead for a long time, has now proven to be possible and correct. However, from the moment of the media announcement of the transition to SNS, the first nervous tones flared up in the ranks of SNS; and the front page of "Kurira" with Šapić's picture and the accumulated functions that Vučić promised him for "drowning", as a hasty exclusive, was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a new cover.

Everything is new for Šapić now. New party, new rules of conduct, new promises from the top, new and old future team and - a new taste of power. Until yesterday, a hard-working student, with excellent lessons, after the announcement of his transfer to SNS, Šapić became the most hated, softest election material for a part of the public, or as the people say, the one that can be kneaded like dough.

TICKET TO SNS

Šapić never hid the goal he set for himself - to be the mayor of Belgrade. Focused on the realization of his ambition and aware of the necessary strong "back" behind him, he always took a neutral political position. Waiting for his famous "cooperation agreement" to be finally reached with one of the parties, he played the game of an "apolitical" politician. Only twice so far has he made a breakthrough and crossed the red line. The first time was in February 2018, a month before the Belgrade elections, when he precisely said in an interview for "Vreme" that there was no longer a single percent opportunity for cooperation with SNS (see box). And now for the second time, when he announced that his party will join the SNS as a group. A few days after the published interview in "Vremen", as a guest on the show "Dan život" on TV N1, Šapić repeated: "If you stand for one way of behaving, and you are ready to give up on your example just for the sake of some function or any other what, then how can people trust you for anything else. Imagine what kind of person I would be if I gave up my human dignity, my character and what I believe in. I will never do that, even if I have never been in any position."

From an interview with Aleksandar Šapić, »Vreme« no. 1413

"There is no agreement with SNS"

In an interview with "Vremen", before the Belgrade elections in 2018, Šapić reproached individuals from the SNS, but also the entire party, for the heavy artillery rhetoric they pelted him with: "I'm not talking about the tabloids, that's a separate story, nor about anything that could be doubts, I'm not talking about the leaflets where I'm insulted but which are not signed, nor about when someone decorates the rooms in a building and signs me, I'm not talking about fake websites that said the most heinous lies about me, so I'm not talking about that: because it's like, you don't know who it is. I'm talking about what people clearly signed and said: it's us, SNS, we say that Šapić is a robber, hochstapler, scumbag, thug..."

Is non-cooperation with SNS your final decision?, especially after the election?

My final decision is that after these elections, if we become part of the city assembly, we will have communication with everyone, because that is our obligation on behalf of the citizens, be it the government or the opposition, but after everything that has happened in the past few months, there is no longer even one percent the chances that we can make any agreement with SNS regarding the joint management of Belgrade. I can be "St. Peter", not the mayor, there is no agreement anymore. And there is no agreement because everything we stand for is the opposite of how they behave.

Today, just before the conclusion of the agreement regarding the merger with SNS, Šapić claims that everything he said, thought and did then. He did not join the progressives, he went to the elections alone, but what he said then was valid only for that period. Now, in his opinion, everything is obviously different. And even at the cost of having to deviate from his previous practice of keeping silent and looking at the floor if no one asks him anything, Šapić would have to say himself this time whether the ruling party's rhetoric, which was the key to his complaint, changed since then, or changed only according to him. If so, why did it change and what exactly did he do to deserve the government's leniency, while others are still rhetorically snarling mercilessly?

The political logic of former top water polo shooter and already established politician of "conversation and agreement" Aleksandar Šapić is simple and clear. Do not take any side until that famous "agreement" is reached with one of them, and exclusively with the party in power. In a political game, the color of the cap has no value, it can be changed as many times as needed, because everything depends on political trade and whoever is in power. Go out on the media stage and take low blows. At the same time, shoot strongly towards the goal. But where the judge can't see, under the water, grab everything that can be material and valuable, "beat" the law, rudely kick and grope in front of the door of failure, show both a smile and fangs.

Such a Šapić is welcome to Vučić. Of course, also because of the experience in running the most populous Belgrade municipality, Novi Beograd. With the introduction of "fresh blood" into his party and the expected additional votes in the Belgrade elections, the unpopular Vesić remains allegedly marginalized. With Šapić's eventual takeover of the SNS Belgrade board, Nebojša Stefanović and his people assigned to important positions in city enterprises and secretariats also do not know what to do. To what extent the probable entrance of Šapić into the SNS will destabilize intra-party relations, and to what extent these relations will remain immune and united around common and personal interests, remains to be seen.

The public's mistrust in the alleged confrontations between party SNS powerful people is huge, the mails and messages published in the media are read between the lines, and Vučić himself is suspected of being the author of all "bold" statements. Until now, it has been said that Šapić said that he does not want Vesić in his team because they have no similarities. Šapić certainly cannot forget the public condemnations and slanders he once experienced from Vesić. A prominent representative of SNS did not miss the opportunity to attack Đilas and Šapić on primetime television with a national frequency, speaking in his aggressive and caustic tone about their incompetence, about the fact that they made a mockery of Belgrade and about their financial malfeasance. The roles are significantly different today, but Vesić still sent an unequivocal message to Šapić: "Before he became a member of the SNS, Šapić started making decisions." There is only one team in SNS, the team of Aleksandar Vučić, there are no other teams and policies in SNS except for Vučić's policy. We all implement one policy, and that is the policy of Aleksandar Vučić". Even if the first, retracted edition of the cover of "Kurira" turns out to be correct, according to which the leader of SPAS will receive four high positions after joining the SNS, namely - the position of vice president of the SNS, the position of mayor of Belgrade, the position of city architect, and under the sign questions is a place in the Secretariat for Finance, then it can easily turn out that Vesić still does not know that Šapić started deciding on progressives even before he became a progressive.

photo: jadranka ilić / tanjug

A DEMOCRAT THAT IS NOT

The future unification of SNS and SPAS, although it caused a lot of indignation among opposition voters, rationally speaking, it did not surprise anyone, especially not representatives of opposition parties. The leader of the Democratic Party, Zoran Lutovac, tells the media that Šapić is in Vučić's service and that he was useful because a good part of the voters thought that by voting for him, they were voting for the opposition, not for Vučić. "The assessment is that now he would be more useful as an open collaborator, primarily because of the presidential elections, which are the most important for Vučić. Therefore, SNS and SPAS, by uniting, are formalizing the cooperation that has been evident for years."

The statement of Radomir Lazović from the Initiative Ne davimo Beograd that this unification is the most honest thing that Aleksandar Šapić has done as a politician in his career has been repeated often. "He has been a progressive puppet for a long time, as we have pointed out many times. It was sad to see how he flattered SNS, painful how he remained silent while terribly harmful projects were being implemented in Belgrade. At least now it is clear to everyone that he is part of the same corrupt clique. From the world champion, he became the half-time champion and this is his reward," says Lazović.

Aleksandar Šapić formally started his political life in the party that was in power at that time, the Democratic Party. Since then, he has never stepped down from power. It is interesting that his page on Wikipedia does not mention anywhere that he was a democrat, a member of the Democratic Party, let alone a party functionary, the president of the DS City Committee in Belgrade. Is Aleksandar Šapić ashamed of his democratic past and renounces it "like Satan"?

At the end of 2012, as a high-ranking official of the DS, Šapić published a joint photo with Hague prisoner Veselin Šljivančanin, with the message: "A big greeting for Veselin Šljivančanin." The Democrats had to react, they issued a statement and distanced themselves from Šapić's move. The verdicts of the Hague Court and the wars of the XNUMXs were by no means the same common theme between him and the DS, and the differences in the traditional democratic point of view and Šapić's, based on what he wrote about himself at the time, were, so to speak, civilizational.

NO CONFRONTATION

However, he did not build his career on party values, but on functions, first as deputy mayor of Đilas. In the 2012 local elections, in New Belgrade, the DS list received 45.670 votes (40,95 percent), and the SNS list received 26.547 votes (23,80 percent). Aleksandar Šapić became the head of the municipal government and remained there until today. At the beginning of his reign, he produced a "miracle", which after New Belgrade spread and was copied by other municipal administrations in Belgrade. Following populist, but also useful measures for the citizens, Šapić did everything so that the citizens would immediately feel the benefits of his government. He organized famous free trips, especially for pensioners, provided numerous discounts and assistance for citizens and children, free language lessons, free swimming lessons, books for students, recreation, which is why he became one of the most popular presidents of the municipality and what distinguished him from all previous ones.

In the next local elections in 2016, Šapić ran independently, as a group of citizens, and received even more votes than with the Democrats. He himself received 53.471 votes (47,96 percent), while 31.422 voters (28,18 percent) voted for the second-placed SNS. At that time, Šapić ruled with the Serbian Radical Party, and in the eyes of yesterday's democratically oriented voters, he lost his previously achieved shine. The progressives do not remain indebted to him after the victory and launch a media, verbal, financial campaign against him. He ran independently in the 2018 Belgrade elections and won third place, behind Vučić and Đilas. In the same year, he founded a political party in accordance with his right-wing views, close to the government in terms of national and political ideas - the Serbian Patriotic Union.

However, in his second mandate in the municipality of Novi Beograd, his populist measures are increasingly overshadowed by what he did not do and what the citizens are dissatisfied with. Under the influence of the public, complaints are coming from all sides about the unjustified spending of municipal money for free programs and allegedly burdened debts, the next question was why the municipal Humanitarian Foundation for Helping Severely Ill Children, founded in 2013, had to be privatized and named after to the name of Aleksandar Šapić, there were calls for nepotism, questions about illegal construction in New Belgrade and why it is not being prevented, why is the Savski problem being turned a blind eye embankment, who is responsible for the catastrophic urban and environmental situation in New Belgrade, and much more. But Šapić's always ready answer ranged from "the City is responsible for that, not the municipality" to "we can't do anything".

Before the parliamentary and local elections in 2020 and the announced boycott of the opposition, Šapić's SPAS did not participate in the formation of the working group for media freedom and the organization of fair elections, nor did it intend to boycott the elections. It was promoted as an opposition, and SPAS's success in the elections suddenly surprised many. The list of Aleksandar Šapić - Victory for Serbia won 123.393 votes in the parliamentary elections (3,83 percent) and 11 mandates in the Serbian Parliament. Šapić's party, gathering former radicals in its ranks, achieves solid success in Kraljevo, Niš, and even enters the city parliament in Novi Sad. In New Belgrade, there was a recount of votes initiated by the SNS, and as its exponent, Goran Vesić requested it, claiming that the SNS has the same data as New Belgrade. Šapić then said: "I would like to finish New Belgrade with one more vote, because that would be a confirmation of my ten years of work under these circumstances." He finished with 870 more votes, which is never less than the second place, so due to the boycott of the opposition and its voters, he received 33.071 votes (45,66 percent), and SNS 32.202 votes (44 percent).

Analysts easily explained the mystery of Šapić's election success. Srđan Bogosavljević from Ipsos strategic marketing said that Šapić's messages are not very national, but common sense, communal, such as caring for people, and as a former athlete he avoided confrontations with everyone. Bojan Klačar from CeSid said for Šapić that he "led a smart campaign that was not confrontational." They are right, because in Provučić's multi-party regime there cannot be a sharp confrontation and electoral success at the same time, and if there was a confrontation, it could not go unpunished. Before the elections in June of last year, Šapić said in time that he was in favor of a policy of dialogue and talking with everyone, with a juicy remark that the progressives had seen all their associates in previous years as subjects, and that he had never been one.

"LACK" YEARS

The friendly, ever-tightening alliance between Šapić and SNS became natural. Prominent member of SPAS, former editor-in-chief of "Večernje novosti" Ratko Dmitrović meanwhile became the Minister for Family Care and Demography. Another prominent member of SPAS, Vladan Glišić, MP and former member of Dveri, left SPAS and Šapić and retained his parliamentary mandate. As the reason for leaving, he cited a disagreement about the organization and the fact that he thought the emphasis would be on the autonomy of local organizations and deputies. Despite the fact that they parted ways, Glišić supports Šapić's candidacy for mayor and tells "Danas": "In the 2016 and 2020 campaign, the National Network and I personally supported Šapić for the presidency of the New Belgrade City Municipality. Regardless of the fact that he is now in power with the Serbian Progressive Party, and we are their opposition, I think he would be a good solution for the mayor of Belgrade. Of course, if it works like it did in New Belgrade".

Is it possible to understand well who wants to be called the government, and who wants to be called the opposition? In Vučić's matrix, in which everyone has their own specific role, both public and secret, which they play under strictly controlled conditions of subject behavior, it would be a pure waste of time to try to analyze and understand everyone's political finesse. For now, at least one thing is clear: Aleksandar Šapić has finally decided which side he will take, and that is good for the Serbian political scene, and especially for the opposition. After all, the "Most European" award for the field of politics in 2020 was awarded to him at the end of the year, and given the long-lost nature of that award, primarily in the field of politics, it was a more than obvious indicator of Šapić's initiation into the SNS. What we are seeing now is only its later echo.