Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, epidemiologist dr. Predrag Kon and pulmonologist dr. Branimir Nestorović.
It was another episode of the horror soap opera that the coronavirus pandemic in the neighboring country turned into: Kon stared exhaustedly into the void, Brnabić lost herself in metaphors about wells and tunnels, and Nestorović talked unstoppably about anything and everything, confirming once again that he responsible media should not be invited as guests at all, and the responsible government should be consulted, writes Croatian index.hr.
Vučić and associates are unable to manage the system
It was painful to watch that propaganda, which is convincing for common sense and human dignity, on which Vučić and his closest associates spend more time in the middle of the pandemic than on the fight against the spread of the corona virus. At the same time, it was a perfect illustration of why Serbia failed so spectacularly in stopping the spread of the infection and why there are already more than two thousand test-confirmed infected and sixty deaths.
In this extraordinary situation, Aleksandar Vučić failed to gather a team of competent experts around him, even when it comes to the health aspect of the pandemic, and even less when it comes to people who are capable of effectively managing the state system in this unprecedented situation. The problem is of course not only Vučić's associates, but also himself, because once again it has been shown that the President of Serbia does not have the capacities he is convinced he has, and that he is Superman, that is not enough to successfully organize the fight of the state apparatus against the corona virus. nor to motivate citizens to behave in solidarity and follow the rules.
It all started with a scandalous press at the end of February
An additional problem is that Vučić, with his continuous verbal outbursts, threats, acting and self-praise, constantly sends contradictory messages to the citizens of Serbia and creates panic, which in many cases would not have happened at all if the president had not uttered some kind of nonsense.
Serbia's tragedy began at the end of February, when Vučić called a media conference to which he also brought Nestorović, who had already made a name for himself by behavior that a serious expert should not allow himself to do in public.
Nestorović called the corona virus "the funniest virus in history" and crowned his insane presentation with the now anthological statement: "Women, feel free to go shopping in Italy, there are now the biggest discounts, estrogen protects you". While he was rambling so carelessly, Nestorović was dying of laughter, and so was Vučić, who was standing behind him at that moment. Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar stated that "the corona virus is much weaker than the common flu".
It was February 26, and at that moment, parts of Lombardy were already under quarantine, Italians went on a panic shopping spree, and Italian doctors realized that they were facing something unimaginable until then. There were about 400 confirmed cases of infection in Italy.
While Croatia was preparing, Vučić was dying of laughter at the sexist jokes
Croatia was already heavily preparing for what was to come as Vučić laughed at Nestorović's sexist jokes and was guided by his charlatan assessments. Everything went downhill for Serbia and its citizens.
Everything that Vučić has done since then was a series of minor or major failures and omissions, some of which directly led to the acceleration of the spread of the infection.
About two weeks after the scandalous press conference with Nestorovic, Vučić changed the board and started with apocalyptic rhetoric, claiming along the way that no one called the corona virus "the funniest virus in history". The President of Serbia is definitely not the first state leader who underestimated the danger posed by the corona virus, but that is why he has been competing with US President Donald Trump for weeks as to who will manage the resulting crisis more disastrously for the lives and health of his citizens.
The main spreader of panic and chaos in Serbia is the president
Vučić's verbal acrobatics from the end of February to the end of March were masterfully summarized by the satirist Zoran Kesić in his show 24 minutes.
In the meantime, the President of Serbia primarily used the pandemic to introduce a state of emergency in Serbia, suspend the work of the parliament and take even greater power into his own hands. At the same time, psychological-police terror began against the citizens of Serbia through a combination of daily public appearances and draconian measures of ad hoc abrogation of civil liberties, without any clear strategy to fight the infection.
Over time, Vučić's daily public appearances become impossible to follow if one wants to keep one's sanity, given that the president of Serbia constantly threatens someone, gives insane monologues, cries, gasps, moans, mumbles anything and everything. Instead of showing himself as the leader he is considered to be, Vučić showed himself as the main spreader of panic and chaos in Serbia, e.g. with his announcement that he would suddenly introduce a 24-hour curfew throughout the country, which then caused a stampede of citizens towards supermarkets, because Vučić said that citizens would no longer be allowed to go shopping.
Trials via Skype?!
To make matters even crazier, a Serbian citizen who posted a status on Facebook the day after Vučić's statement announcing the introduction of a 24-hour curfew was promptly arrested for spreading panic. Scandalous trials via Skype were also introduced, and in one of them, a citizen was sentenced to three years in prison by emergency procedure for violating the self-isolation measure. Let's repeat it one more time: a man was sentenced to three years in prison via Skype!
In one article, there is too little space for all of Vučić's outbursts in recent weeks, but it is certainly worth mentioning that in one of the attacks of the camp he admitted that he had lied to Germany about the number of respirators that Serbia has in order to try to get more of them, but those who insisted that made public the exact number of respirators thwarted his insane plan. There is also bizarre propaganda of the action of thanking China, which includes Vučić personally welcoming a plane with medical supplies from the Far East at the airport, as if the president of the country has nothing better to do in the midst of a pandemic.
Undercapacity of Vučić's ruling party
The corona virus has exposed the brokenness of institutions in Serbia, as well as the colossal undercapacity of its ruling SNS cadres to deal with this unequivocally challenging situation. Unlike Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who can rely on experienced apparatchiks such as Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, who learned the art of managing the system back in socialism, Vučić is surrounded by skorojevics, forgers of doctoral dissertations and alumni of Megatrend, a notorious private university known for stamping and wholesale diplomas.
A number of pacers' mistakes were also made, such as the fact that the entire garrison of the Serbian army, which participated in organizing quarantine for Serbian citizens returning from abroad, was infected with the corona virus. This could only happen if the soldiers did not have the proper protective equipment or did not follow the necessary protocols, both of which are disasters that would have caused the immediate resignation of Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin in a normal country.
The scandalous arrest of a journalist who wrote about the lack of medical equipment
Serbia fails to implement even the most banal epidemiological measures, the latest example of which is the massive spread of infection in the hospital in Dedinje, Belgrade: they still cannot determine how the corona virus entered the hospital in the first place and how it spread.
In all this chaos, Vučić and Prime Minister Brnabić perform almost daily pranks that insult the intelligence of the citizens.
Perhaps the best example of this is the scandalous arrest of journalist Ana Lalić, who wrote about the lack of equipment in the hospital in Novi Sad. The arrest was made on the basis of the decision of the Serbian government, formally Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, while Vučić lamented in public that he begged Brnabić to retract that decision.
It was as if all of that had passed him by and as if he was not beating his chest with his absolute dominance over every aspect of life in Serbia. In the end, Brnabić withdrew the decision at the request of the "boss", as she said. After that, she threw herself into the important task of showing the public photos of Vučić's children volunteering.
It is impossible to enumerate all the ways in which Vučić and his entourage simultaneously terrorize the citizens of Serbia and fail in the fight against the spread of the infection, but the paradigmatic example of this is certainly the stupid dr. Nestorović, who continues to walk on the regime's television channels and unstoppably spews lies and nonsense. Last night, Nestorović was on Happy TV and slandered that he actually wanted to prevent panic in Serbia with his nonsense from the end of February. He also stated several times "I am not a moron", which is a sentence that would never be uttered by someone who is not a moron.
And while in other European countries, which reacted on time and with competence, they are slowly starting to think about the moment when it will make sense to gradually ease protection measures, Serbia is yet to face a disaster.
Still without a clear strategy
Even after more than three weeks since he finally realized the extent of the danger, Vučić has not managed to organize a functional system, but everything is still being done haphazardly and without a clear strategy. The question is whether the citizens of Serbia understand that the current president is leading them to ruin with his disordered behavior and chaotic politics during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether they can oppose it in any way.
In any case, it is clear that Serbia is currently facing a threat that is more dangerous than Covid-19. That threat is called Aleksandar Vučić.
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