BALKAN

The technology of rule

Party recruitment and the creation of a "bot army" is probably a unique case in the world
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President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Photo: Betaphoto, Betaphoto
President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Photo: Betaphoto, Betaphoto
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

All employment in republican and local government bodies, in all state and parastatal enterprises from the whole country, is approved in a single (party) office in Belgrade. Cruelty goes so far that hundreds of thousands of these people are kept in the status of temporary employees for years, and then they are blackmailed into extending their contracts, again for a certain period of time. These people have a work obligation to go to Vučić's rallies, to collect certain or capillary votes, to write positive comments about the leader on internet portals and social networks, to slander the opposition and any critic of the government. These people have no choice because they have nothing to live on.

The false fight against corruption is one of the main levers of his power. When he came to power, that marketing struggle came down to the arrest of the richest man in Serbia, Miroslav Mišković, which brought him an increase in popularity. That man was neither legally convicted, nor did anyone after the court verdict end up in prison for serious corruption. From time to time, he conducts a marketing-directed campaign against crime and corruption, arrests some people without evidence, they are eventually released, but he gets what he wanted - creating a false image of justice and fairness while his personal and party environment is illegal. as rich as anyone in recent history. Much more than during Milosevic's time.

Vučić achieves the new economic elite as support for personal power by acting in two directions.

The first is the forced purchase and sale of successful small and medium-sized enterprises, where the owners are forced to sell them to people from Vučić's circle. Another direction is business with the state, where it is absolutely impossible for anyone who is not part of the regime, or close to the regime, to get even the smallest job.

Vučić manages his own party in a manner very similar to the management of the National Socialist Party in Germany in the 30s. Absolutely any critical word is strictly forbidden, the leader is obeyed without question and his will is carried out, which is expressed in aggressive communication, threats and insults even to the closest associates. The goal is to intimidate everyone and everything, and the slightest disobedience is punished, including police-judicial prosecutions and media lynching. Televised recordings from meetings of party bodies when officials have to applaud the great leader for fifteen or twenty minutes seem terrifying - we have seen this in world history and we know very well what it led to.

Within the party, there are regional party coordinators who are a parallel authority and manage all executive power structures in each region of the country, and are responsible only and exclusively to the leader. Mayors of municipalities, local judges and prosecutors, and directors of public companies are also responsible to them. They determine which companies will get local jobs, they determine who will buy local media, they intimidate local opposition activists...

(...)

Aleksandar Vučić does not have any politics, he does not respect any values, anyone or anything. His only goal is personal and unlimited power, and there are no prohibited means to achieve that goal. He changes his attitudes daily, knowingly lies, manipulates, humiliates institutions and the private lives of thousands of people. His only policy is daily opinion polls and focus groups as a means of manipulating the public.

When research shows him that he should make false promises, he does so. When they suggest to him that he should make a statement against America or the European Union - he hires associates and tabloids for that. When it seems productive to him to create an image of friendship with Russia - he engages all resources to glorify Putin. When faced with growing opposition ratings - he calls them fascists and traitors. When research shows that he is profiling an individual who would defeat him in fair elections - he organizes a months-long media lynching of that individual. When focus groups show the growing dissatisfaction of citizens due to corruption - he organizes fake arrests...

How long?

Excerpt from a wider author's text for the weekly NIN

DANAS.RS

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