It is excellent that on Monday, August 6, the opposition parties and movements discussed the conditions for going to the elections or the possible boycott of the elections if these conditions are not met. The fact that mostly all important protagonists from the ranks of the opposition gathered and agreed, and then agreed on at least one important thing such as the defense of democracy in Serbia, is incomparably better news than last week's news that on Tuesday, July 30, some parts of the opposition were invited and agreed to secretly meet with representatives of the regime and negotiate elections.
Furthermore, it is also good that the (long) nascent opposition bloc did not immediately decide whether to participate in the elections or boycott them. Such an important decision requires, in addition to time, strong arguments and reliable facts, as well as appropriate ways to make it. The opposition that met yesterday missed several opportunities to establish those ways: for example, when the Alliance for Serbia was formed, and then also when the so-called Agreement with the people was formulated and accepted. Both were opportunities to build mutual trust, both between the actors from the ranks of the opposition, and between the opposition and the people of Serbia. Both were missed.
Perhaps a potentially joint decision to boycott/go to the polls will be another missed opportunity in the same way. Last week's so-called round table of the government and the opposition at the Faculty of Political Sciences resembled that. Everything about that meeting was wrong - from the organizers, to the venue, the selection of opposition representatives, representatives of civil society, representatives of the regime, to, of course, the secrecy of the meeting itself and its being called a round table.
It cannot be a round table from Tuesday in any conceivable way. The institution of the round table is a practical search for a peaceful way out of a situation in which there are actors of approximately equal strength on the opposing sides. At least that's how it was in the countries of the Eastern Bloc during the transition from the ninth to the tenth decade of the 20th century. Nothing in Serbia and nothing outside it resembles that situation today. Let's illustrate it: then the regimes of the socialist countries were forced to sit down at the round table and determine the conditions of their fall; In Serbia, the opposition, that is, some of its parts, was detained for this purpose, in order to ensure the legitimate stay in power of the usurping regime.
But, from Tuesday to Monday, things seem to have changed for the better regarding the opposition. First, there was no selection of opposition protagonists. It is important to build an image of a united opposition front when it comes to the defense of democracy in Serbia. Second, the meeting was not secret: it was properly announced and the media was informed in time. Freedom of the media cannot be demanded at meetings closed to the media, as happened last Sunday. Furthermore, the meeting place, the Stari Grad municipality building, is a rare political place from which opposition actors can speak from a position of political power. (The University of Belgrade, on the other hand, is fundamentally corrupt, no matter how much some of its parts, including the FPN, of course, try to save their academic honor.)
Then, with this meeting, the opposition protagonists showed that they hear and react to the so-called voice of the public. The secret meeting of some of them with representatives of the regime was not welcomed as a calculated political step; on the contrary, the opposition-minded public mostly harshly criticized him. The opposition responded to the criticism with a meeting yesterday. It is a good way to build trust between the opposition and the people of Serbia. Much better, of course, than a secret meeting and subsequent announcements/justifications.
In addition, with this meeting, the opposition pushed the regime out of the focus of the opposition-minded public, at least for a while, and showed itself as a collective actor capable of attracting attention on its own. The picture of Tuesday's meeting was, unfortunately, dominated by representatives of the regime. Finally, instead of the disunited opposition selected by the regime and under the guise of organizers since last Tuesday, yesterday we again have a picture of the opposition coming together and standing together against the usurping regime.
- by shaping the message they want to send. According to what we see, we will be able to judge where they are headed.
Peščanik.net
Bonus video:
