"A breath of fresh wind in the Balkans", as Madeleine Albright told him, roared through Podgorica. Anyway, on the way to Mostar, Milorad Dodik stopped by his friend Raj, threw, as usual, several firecrackers in the form of three fingers, the agreement on special ties between Republika Srpska and Montenegro, and of course the "phenomenal ideas of the Serbian world".
And, by God, he succeeded in his plan.
To be honest, it wasn't difficult for him. Part of the local social, political and media scene is receptive to everything that comes from that famous "Serbian world", as the kids would say, like an orphan on sour milk.
But before I try to explain that famous "Serbian world", those who deal with Dodik these days should be reminded who is actually the man who threatens to destroy Montenegro with that "phenomenal idea". I wouldn't spend a lot of words on Dodik, because the biographies of promoters of the "Serbian world" speak best of that, as Mile said, "phenomenal idea".
Milorad Dodik is known as the best friend of all Serbian presidents, from Slobodan Milošević to Aleksandar Vučić, and a faithful ally of every Serbian government.
Few people, for example, remember that Sloba is one of the most responsible for Dodik's political rise. Namely, in the elections of that time, Biljana Plavšić and the "Sloga" coalition, which, in addition to her newly formed SNS, also included socialists and Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, were in a position to form a government.
After Mladen Ivanić, then a non-party figure, refused the offer, the coalition representatives went to a meeting with Milošević in Belgrade. One of the participants of that meeting claimed that everyone was surprised when Milosevic suggested that they entrust the mandate to the "young and energetic Dodik".
Since it was a time when Sloba's "advice" was not rejected, Dodik became the Entity Prime Minister on January 18, 1998. At the time, it was said that "Milosevic was blowing in one of his sails, and Madeleine Albright in the other, who fondly called him 'a breath of fresh wind in the Balkans'". His first mandate lasted until January 12, 2001, but the young prime minister from Laktaš quickly mastered the Balkan political rules. Only a little more than two years later, on September 28, 2000, in an open letter to Milošević, Dodik said to his yesterday's boss:
"It's time to go, Slobodan. "Never has any Serbian emperor, prince, king or president, since the arrival of the Serbs in the Balkans, caused so much misery to his people, shed so much blood, fenced them off from the whole world, as you have done," he said in the letter, indicating that the Serbs in Croatia "no longer know where Belgrade is, those from Knin don't know what happened to them, while Kosovo Serbs have only faith and hope left".
However, Mile would not be Dodik if he had not said the following in an interview with "Politica" on March 6, 2016:
"From this time distance, I have to say very clearly that, from a historical point of view, if I were to eliminate all the disagreements we had, the role of Slobodan Milošević and Serbia from the point of view of the Serbs in the Republika Srpska was very positive".
Similar or the same stories could be written about his relations with Djindjic, Koštunica, Tadić, and there is no reason why it should not be the same with Aleksandar Vučić.
Because, those with a better memory will remember that Dodik was directly involved in the pre-election campaigns, openly siding with Boris Tadić and the Democratic Party. In 2007, at the height of the campaign, he wrote to Tadić: "During your first mandate, you did a lot to affirm the Republika Srpska on the international level and to improve political, economic, cultural and other relations between Belgrade and Banja Luka."
And when Tadić's victory was certain, he was even harsher:
"The elections showed that they are marginal political figures. Abortions! Abortions in elections. They are running in the elections, and my modest knowledge of politics says that they would barely pass the elections in the local communities".
That's what Milorad Dodik said about Aleksandar Vučić, the man he follows at the very head of the column of the "Serbian world", side by side with Mandić.
I wouldn't spend too much time talking about Vojvoda. For details I highly recommend Text of my esteemed young colleague Nikola Dragaš "A new suit for an old wolf", and for this occasion I would like to single out a few details that are incredibly reminiscent of the character and work of his comrade from Laktaš.
In Mandić's official biography, there is no information about when he entered the party waters. Although his involvement in the People's Party (NS) is considered the first, his former associates claim that he entered politics through Anto Marković's Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia in the early nineties, but that he "deleted" that part of his life.
With a group led by Božidar Bojović, he left NS in 1997, after part of the party's leadership led by its then president Novak Kilibarda approached Đukanović, and founded SNS.
Six years later, there was a split in that party as well, after the conflict between Mandić's and Bojović's factions. Mandić then becomes the head of the SNS, while Bojović forms the Democratic Serbian Party with Ranko Kadić, accusing the opposite camp of carrying out a coup and breaking up the party, and then indirectly calling the SNS part of the "regime opposition".
The rest is already history.
And that's why, come to your senses, Montenegrin brothers!
"Serbian world" is for Serbs what Europe now 2 is for Montenegrins - a project that no one has seen on paper, it is not known what exactly it contains and whether it exists at all, but all orthodox Sorbians swear by it.
What kind of "Serbian world" is it in whose capital, spiritual source, national foundation, as the Sorbians beat Kosovo, the "proven" Albin Kurti reigns?
Doesn't the absurdity tell you enough about Montenegrins - the bigger and stronger the "Serbian world" in Kosovo, the less and less Serbia and Serbs and Serbia every day?
And, didn't anyone tell you until now or have you heard that the "Serbian world" is a phantasmagoria created in the laboratory of the well-known Bebe Popović, all with the intention of fooling primarily the Serbs, but also Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Albanians, almost everyone except Americans who, look at the miracles, silently observe the snarling of Vulin, Mandić, Dodik and other spiders who faithfully and dedicatedly act in this tragicomic skit, all fooling the "heavenly people" until the Kosovo episode ends.
And when this show comes to an end, and that day is not far off, I suspect that Vojvoda and Mile from Laktaš will tell you, as John Maynard Keynes did when he was attacked for changing his stance on government interference in the economy:
"When the facts change, I change my mind. And what are you doing, gentlemen?"
Bonus video:
