Without prior announcement, the Ministry of Defense of Serbia announced on Saturday that the President of Serbia, Aleskandar Vučić, ordered the deployment of part of the forces on the territory of the border municipality of Šid, in whose three reception centers around two thousand migrants are accommodated.
The official reason is to provide assistance to members of the MUP of Serbia in ensuring public order and peace.
The reason for this, however, is unclear.
Article 2 of the Law on the Serbian Army allows the President of the Republic to decide, at the request of state authorities, that the Serbian Army provide assistance "for the protection of life and safety of people and property, environmental protection or for other reasons established by law."
It is still not known whether such a request was actually made, who did it and on what basis.
The reception center in Šid announced that there were no incidents in the previous period, and that the police intervened in one case due to an argument between two men.
Director of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Vladimir Cucić, said that the presence of the army is "preventive", that "there are no indications of disturbing public order and peace, let alone misdemeanor and criminal acts" and that there is even a tendency to reduce the number of migrants in reception centers in Serbia.
If it was really necessary to hire the army to bring eighteen migrants caught sleeping on someone else's property, will we send artillery and military aviation to Vračar, where the Skaljar and Kavač clans are at war?
If we are looking for the real reasons for the activation of the army, we should first recall that it happened on the same day that the pre-election campaign of the Serbian Progressive Party officially continued.
Of course it's not a coincidence.
Some of the opposition forces, such as Dveri and Dost je bilo, have been building a narrative for years about the alleged invasion of millions of migrants that the government intends to settle in Serbia.
Social networks are abuzz with fake news about how migrants are being built and allocated apartments, and the matter is fueled by the lack of transparency surrounding the ""ad agreement"" that allows Austria to return refugees who arrived to Serbia via the Balkan route.
Xenophobia is a flammable thing that is easy to manipulate, especially when it also has a class dimension.
Columns of people who can pack all their possessions into a backpack are rarely welcome in these areas.
Sometimes it's Roma people who are forcibly displaced by gentrifiers, but the principle is always the same.
The state settles a certain number of people in a municipality without providing resources or infrastructure for permanent settlement, the local government has no capacity or instructions from above on what to do next, these people live in misery, and then the locals stage protests demanding that the "problem" be removed from their eyes blaming them for every piece of paper outside the dumpster and every stolen bike.
Migrants are the ideal target to take that approach to a higher level, and the opposition right wing has accepted it with open arms.
As in many previous cases when a topic becomes a stronghold of the opposition, the progressive regime begins to speak about it even louder, with more resources, correcting it just enough to neutralize or make the criticism meaningless.
Making a protest in front of the assembly? We're going to bring in busloads of people and make it bigger. You criticize us by Twitter? We'll attack you with bots and make a prime time TV show to criticize Twitter. Are you on hunger strike? Twice as many of ours will go on strike. Protesting from the balcony? We will protest your protests by shooting fireworks from the roofs of buildings.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense - if it doesn't, it's easier for them to draw attention to themselves.
Now a similar thing is happening with migrants. After noticing that a part of the opposition may be profiting from years of growing fear of the alleged invasion of migrants, the government decided to appropriate the topic by solving the "problem" no less than by sending the army.
This achieves two things at the same time: The first is a pre-election demonstration of a firm hand, which is always popular in times of crisis, and the crisis in Serbia has lasted in various forms for three full decades.
Another consequence is putting the xenophobic current in the opposition in an awkward position: you asked for someone to do something about the migrants, and here we are, we sent the army to them. What else do you want, let's shoot?
It is also a trailer for what we will see if the right wing of the opposition continues to insist on the topic of migrants. Just as it previously kidnapped the topic of European integration from the civil opposition by outdoing it in taking photos with European leaders, the government is apparently preparing to monopolize xenophobia by exercising it more openly, with more media attention.
Pro-regime Inform during the weekend, he already fired six trombone texts about sending the army to Šid.
Terms such as "full war equipment", "troops" and "establishment of position" are being forced, as if the migrants are waiting for them in tanks, not in old sneakers. It is clear that the choice of terminology has no effect on the effectiveness of the army members in the field - its only purpose is a marketing landing on the voter Drvar.
The regime has abundant resources for fieldwork, especially in right-wing movements and fan groups in its orbit.
A member of the ultra-right Leviathan recently drove his car through the fence of the Acceptance Center in Obrenovac, which is guarded by the army, ran wild on it, filming himself until he stopped at the exit, got out of the car and fought the soldiers until they arrested him.
He was released from custody in just three days, but after an appeal by the prosecution, he was returned to custody again.
It turned out to be this one Breivik for the poor at the same time a member of SNS, president of the Obrenovac Municipality Council Commission for cooperation with youth and associations, and at the same time works at the Sports and Cultural Center Obrenovac.
There are two responses of the authorities to the challenge from the right: one in the display of state muscles, and the other in the satellite opposition, which will, if necessary, be a bigger door than the Door with impunity.
It's up to the citizens to decide whether they like it better when they step on a military boot or a martini, although these new rightists prefer Nikes.
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