They are probably not protests that will change anything, but they show the state of a society in a very precise way. Vučić's fictitious well-being - which rests on a mix of media hysteria, sheer deception and the elementary imperfection of a human being - is clearly not enough. You have to play with the narrative, let your imagination run wild...
But, despite the great ideological diversity, the attempt to compromise the protest by inserting thugs into the ranks of the demonstrators, it is clear that the key word is anger. This event is actually dominated by that feeling - immense anger. Serbian society feels anger. Faced with this fact, Vučić's "rant" about hooligans and anti-social elements becomes ridiculous, certainly dysfunctional.
It is not wise to underestimate the power of anger. That, I like to point out, is the first word of European literature. "Goddess, sing to me the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus..." And that fact should be appreciated.
How can you not feel anger when you hear the all-knowing and all-powerful president simply reasoning - these protests are a way to weaken our position in the negotiations... In other words, the protesters are working for Thaci. But it can also be for Putin, if necessary. It's all the fault of some mysterious foreigners. Maybe Đukanović got his fingers involved, they like to do things to each other from time to time...
Vučić lives a dictatorial ideal: he has no opposition, controls the media, the entire economy and the entire cultural scene. Well, again, something's not right...
Unlike him, Đukanović has an opposition (of sorts), he does not control all the media, and again, he seems even more untouchable than his friend from Belgrade. It seems that being a dictator is not easy.
Also, the current scenes from Belgrade work well for Đukanović. Among other things, the gruesome Belgrade scenes of police rampage relativize the recently seen Budva violence.
The case of citizen Omer Š proved to be worthy of Jozef K, in a Montenegrin, transitional way. That literalism of dull system officials who are no longer able to discern elementary irony is actually frightening. When someone reaches that stage, his mind is destroyed, eaten by fear and galloping stupidity... We have received the most empirically based proof of the incapacity of the local services to protect order. What dilettantes. Everywhere you look. I don't believe it is good for CG that it sometimes seems like a promised land for dilettantes of all kinds. And that is our reality. Whether this type of government is the cause or a symptom of the situation we are talking about is not easy to fathom.
Each autocrat, despite the similarities, is a story of its own. Not only because of the diversity of character, personality, intellect, but because of that crucial dictatorial seal - "relationship with the masses". Each of them projects an image of their "good people", and people like to recognize themselves in such images and to be attached to them. Thus, they have no fear that someone will declare them traitors or ostracize them in the name of the collective in some other way. That relationship - He and the People - forms the basic psychological portrait of every dictator. That's why protests annoy them - it's always an act that, above all, disrupts the proclaimed Idyll.
That is why the force with which they respond to such events is, as a rule, excessive, because then they get angry like spoiled girls from old stories, they want to break the mirror...
"He doesn't talk, he makes speeches, moans like a grandmother about his vulnerability, threatens suicide. He has gathered the worst scum around him, who knows that he can only profit in such a system." As much as this seems like a perfect croc of the Serbian president, I will have to disappoint you. This was written by Thomas Mann in 1933, and, of course, it seems startlingly familiar.
A friend sent me this sentence, as a nice demonstration of how repetitive the models of enchantment and the contexts that make dictators possible.
Behind every dictator in history there was first of all a huge collective/national frustration. Vučić, as well as the one Man wrote about, are no exception.
Bonus video:
