Breathing into the microphone, worshiping the pauses, swearing breath, we've seen it all over and over.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has long been using his performances for the ideological consolidation of the political system he rules. His speeches and aggression towards the media lead to an organic fusion of the leader and society. In this way, the community obeys the fantasy of a political repression. The aesthetic expression of that repression is Vučić's cynical jokes, physiognomic codes, grimaces and subversive meanings that he loads with the constant production of the language of urgency. In moments of crisis, the pathological nature of that language becomes stronger, the speaker comes clean with directives that are presented as a higher power, as if they come down from above, beyond politics and above the power of the leader.
After the school massacre in Belgrade and the mass murder in Mladenovac, after 16 deaths, such a situation arose. In his address to the nation, Vučić offered a series of repressive measures, but did not mention responsibility for the breakdown of society in Serbia, nor for the political promotion of violence in the media he controls.
Before Vučić said anything, the field was cleared on social networks and at public meetings. While the killer in Mladenovac was still loading the cartridge for the second mass murder in two days, KK Partizan fans spread the message at the match against Real: "Staying away from tradition, religion, family always leaves tragic consequences." One minister blamed "Western values" for the massacre of students. However, these are explanations from the lower layers of reality, the father of the nation does not descend to the level of geopolitics and culture, he lives above history, all in mythological time, he is interested in the essence of human existence, he is in favor of the death penalty - but they don't give it to him.
Vučić's pathetic whining and rhetorical sleight of hand in regular circumstances is light entertainment that masks the terrible damage he does. In moments of national mourning, however, it is about formative messages, with which the leader plays the card of general values and collectivist enthusiasm.
A speaker like Vučić always has two plans, two alternating perspectives. At the level of drama and catharsis, despair and hope, humility and pride, forgiveness and revenge appear in him. Vučić would not be the hero of the fascist political momentum if he could not subvert irrational messages into the political language of technocracy, if the bureaucratic backwoods of his ministers in the background were not only the antithesis of the higher knowledge that he, as a champion, shares with the people.
Shamanic intimidation by higher forces ("then a psychopath, a monster, a devil appears") goes hand in hand with historical grandeur complexes ("the Serbian people and the citizens of Serbia are a great nation"). Irrational is invoked by Vučić as a kind of alternative program, so he literally says:
"If I were a supporter of the conspiracy theory I might have something to say. Since I am not and cannot be, as the president of the republic, I will only, from a rational point of view, announce the facts, the measures, and what all we need to do".
Vučić will therefore speak "only rationally" because he is limited by his presidential function, and if he were not, if he could speak in his full human capacity, which he implicitly gives priority to, then he could say something along the lines of conspiracy theories, which he does not believe in otherwise. but he must definitely mention them in the first minute of his speech.
Vučić's subversive demagogic floats are scattered all over his discourse, they are like pontoons through which the listener should reach the real meaning hidden behind the official point of view, which is important, but insufficient in a crisis. Considering that the president uses the language of urgency and revelation in his daily political life, considering that he devalued the alarm by producing it daily through his paramedia networks, his message is weak to aggravate the tragedy. From that helplessness comes aggression, hence the threats.
Faced with a real accident, Vučić uses the language he normally uses to wail about Prizren and hunt witches in newsrooms, which is why it turns out to be insufficiently convincing. The leader's famous threat to hang himself no longer works. Therefore, he introduces the word "terrorist" for the attack in Mladenovac, then devalues the attacker as a "villain" who "will not see the light of day again". A classic Vučić pun where the political terminology, ideological and legal framework of terrorism ends with an easy eight, and in the grand finale it is spiced up with a catch all line in the footsteps of domestic cinematography:
"In Serbia, you found Hitler... a piece of garbage!... who caused so many misfortunes to this nation! So here you found him to admire and to kill our people! Monsters one!”
The President of Serbia announced repressive measures, a police alert, but also an important disarmament action, which must take place immediately, "without those procedures for which we will have to wait 17 months." The leader calls for impulsive action, privatizes the moment of decision, despotic grace is spent, he calls hyperbole to help ("there is no such mother and grandmother who slept in the last 48 hours".)
There is no government that could easily manage the crisis that has befallen Serbia in the last two days. What should be the basis of any political action is the calming of tension and an effective call for social cohesion. Vučić's performances carry that message, but with their drama they do not promise the opening of Serbian society. The repression that the President of Serbia relies on does not seem like an act of liberation, but a new type of pressure that could produce new shootings. Bad news for Serbia is bad news for the region.
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