For the first time in the seven-year rule of this government, three days ago a discussion on the Kosovo problem was started in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. So far, we have heard all kinds of things about negotiations and possible solutions, but certainly nothing concrete. The citizens of Serbia have no idea about the president's plan to solve this problem, but he still accused them of not accepting his plan and that, as a nation, they will pay a heavy price for that.
In the Assembly, the president was supposed to submit a report on the multi-year work on this problem. Instead of proposals for solutions, we heard general platitudes, incoherent applause, praise and volleys of admiration for one man. The representatives of the ruling party enjoyed their smugness, self-understanding and self-satisfaction, with a noticeable absence of empathy for the people who live in that den and who are daily victims of, one would say, pre-arranged fights between politicians here and there. In addition to the general absence of empathy, we also saw a general absence of remorse from the ruling majority. This kind of irresponsibility indicates that these people do not care about the consequences, which the increasingly intense firing of falsehoods from the most responsible state positions is causing and will cause in our society.
The President stated in the Assembly that his job is to tell people "the truth, sometimes bitter, sometimes unpleasant and whatever it may be, but the truth". Yes, the president's job is to tell the truth. But the president was president a little less than a month ago during the summit in Berlin. He then stated that the position of "Serbia does not depend on Pristina" and that "Pristina cannot do anything without us". He said that he asked Thaci "what do you really want from Serbia?" For Serbia to fulfill all your wishes, and get what? Your confession? What will your confession do us? Serbia is a recognized country, half of the world recognizes it as a sovereign country with a complete territory, and that, although part of the world recognizes it as a sovereign country without Kosovo, it is recognized by the United Nations as a sovereign country with a complete territory". "And where are you recognized?", the president confidently continued and asked "what would we need from you?" The president then pointed out that he literally told them that "you can never become anything, no consolidated state without Serbia". According to his testimony, the Albanians obeyed his words, which is why they had no choice but to "stare at the ceiling" and "go outside and tell those heroic stories". Surrounded by his exploits from Berlin, he declared a week later on RTS that "as long as the president is not there, he will not recognize the independence of Kosovo".
Or maybe these are all his heroic stories for his subjects, especially those who shout at him in the Assembly because he fights for the truth, "and that more than those who know the truth but keep it quiet. And who would if someone else's children were fighting for Kosovo, not their children". It is striking, however, that the assembly's truth is completely opposite to that of Berlin. The parliamentary truth says that Albanians are still wondering something. The president informed us that "Serbia has no power in Kosovo except in health and education and that it is necessary to stop deceiving the public". As he himself says, he has been saying this for "seven years since he has been in power", as he says that "peace and a stable economy and an agreement with the Albanians are necessary". He said that "we Serbs and Albanians are in a stalemate" and "if we don't agree to a compromise, we will lose everything". So, from Berlin to the Assembly, so much has changed that Albanians are no longer "bleating at the ceiling", they are no longer telling their "heroic stories", they are wondering something, and we are, to put it in a chess dictionary, in a stalemate.
But a stalemate means the game is over and the outcome is a draw. What kind of draw is the president referring to? Or a stalemate just sounds good, but in reality "if there is no compromise solution, just wait for the attacks of the Albanians". At the end of his speech the day before yesterday, the president stated that it is time to "stop deceiving ourselves", which should probably mean that citizens have been deceiving themselves for years. Or will it be that, as the example from Berlin shows, citizens have been misled for years by the same person who called us to admit "that we have suffered a heavy national defeat" the day before yesterday. Well, of course, when something happens to you, it means that it happened because of the fault of others.
Expected or not, the announced Albanian attacks were realized the very next day. ROSU launched an operation to arrest persons suspected of criminal activities in the northern part of Kosovo. After launching this action, the president stated in the Parliament that he had received information from the intelligence services 20 days ago that there would be arrests and that he had warned the Serbs (unknown which ones) and the international public about it. It seems, therefore, that everyone except the citizens of Serbia knew about these ROSU plans. He then informed the deputies that he had ordered "full combat and combat readiness of our army units" and announced victory in the event of a larger-scale conflict. Of course, this heroic pounding in the chest was followed by the thunderous applause of the deputies who, in ecstasy, jumped into their own mouths and forgot that this announced victory should be achieved by "someone else's children, not their own". In the end, when he denied at the press conference in the Serbian parliament that he had mentioned the military intervention in Kosovo, the president once again showed what the word self-deception means in his terminology.
The author is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (Peščanik.net).
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