When the other day the mayor of Kraljevo resigned and placed himself in the top ten who did it the fastest, responding to an order from Belgrade, he proved for the umpteenth time the nature of his given office
Predrag Vostanic, Local Front, Kraljevo. 29.05.2023. Photo by Marija Jankovic...
When I happen to guide guests through my city, I care so much about showing them the most beautiful sides of the place where I live that I sound unusual to myself. It is so different from what I do much more often in public, which is to show all the city's dysfunctionalities, idiosyncrasies and ossiness of the local so-called government. When someone comes to me, I want him to love my city. Let him have a good time there and leave with good impressions. And when I criticize the city's dysfunctionality and the people who manage it, I want my city to be loved by the people who live in it. I want it to be their city and for them to experience it in a similar way to my guests when I present it to them.
In the first case, I tend to romanticize stories, add anecdotes, mix in the names of local vagabonds, bohemians and people from unspeakable events, and in the second case I mention places, circumstances and names of people I know, who do not feel the necessary belonging to this city. That's why it's hard for me when my guests leave and when I return to the people who live here and don't belong. And that's because they are persistently rejected by the people who supposedly manage the city. And those who reject them are people who are only executors of the will of an immature political system, one that rules arrogantly in accordance with the will of its employers from Belgrade. Sometimes from Kosovska Mitrovica or Novi Sad, but mostly from Belgrade.
When the other day the mayor of Kraljevo resigned and placed himself in the top ten who did it the fastest, responding to an order from Belgrade, he proved for the umpteenth time the nature of his given office. He didn't come to the position of mayor of this city by putting his name, surname and his favorite title on some list, but he put all three things in the shadow of the cult that the agencies have been building for several years. I tried to feel sorry for him, but it didn't work, because people who don't control themselves and their actions are to be pitied, but when their behavior is dominated by banal arrogance, then I have no sympathy for them. Well, although his principal and almost the owner of all political power and will this time mocked everything that is basically democratic in this political system, this time he mocked him terribly too. He did not even know how to answer the question why he resigned. Well, I did feel a little sorry for him there.
He had to know that - how to respond, if only to preserve basic dignity. Or is that not taught at the academy? For almost two full terms, nothing has been done in this city in response to a real need of the people who live in it, nor with any confirmation of altruistic benevolence. Not a single dinar was spent in that way, but everything that was done had to be the result of the orders of party proxies, at least for the most part, if not completely usable in the pre-election campaign.
Yes, the pre-election campaign has been going on for eleven years now. And that's why the projects and everything that is done in the city, and even the necessary maintenance activities, are actually part of that campaign. Because Raša Nedeljkov is right when he says that elections in this country are in fact a governing mechanism, not a way to win power. In this pre-election excitement, the government lives all the time like a pauper in the time of pig slaughter. It is a period of plenty, of satiety, of cause for celebration, based only on the empty belief that there will be food all year round. And when there are no reasons to celebrate or no food, you can always organize a new petty-bourgeois party from the budget, only if you also pay for the party tickets for the decade-long orgy.
I get the impression that they would orgy like this forever and wouldn't even mind if the planet exploded after them. They cover up their ecstasy with poor imitations of their leader, slow speech, pathetic sentences, sighs and cheap self-sufficiency. The worst impression, however, is the gap between the status they are fighting for and the status of the people they are primarily addressing in that campaign. It is more than clear that they address those who need the protection of the state the most and who need the help and material care of the system.
And these cannot keep themselves in the role of modest, because the petty bourgeoisie must boast of the petty bourgeoisie. They have to show each other the watch, talk about wine, menus, point out the brand of clothing or car. And then, dressed up like that, they wander among the peasants, simple people who need a meter of asphalt, a container, a job in intensive production or public service. They make promises and call for closeness with the president as the only guarantee for the fulfillment of those promises. And in principle, they don't care about those people. They return to their more expensive roles and the wooing game begins. Because their careers depend on that role, not on the fulfillment of people's demands. Everyone is hoping for a bigger position, ministries and moving to Belgrade. And I would really like it if we all lived in Kraljevo.
The author is an activist of the Local Front from Kraljevo
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