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[...] Pajamas Media » Serbian Election a Muddle for Pro-EU Forces [...]

Thanks Mr. Davis on your informative article.

It seems to me,the only strategy for Tadic now is to get one or more of the minority parties on his team, and that is not going to be easy.

Adding Nikolic’s Radicals would put Tadic way, way over the top at 179 seats, but that’s a highly improbable alliance for a hundred different reasons, not the least of which is that they are at opposite ends of the political spectrum from one another.

Adding Kostunica’s thirty seats alone could also do it for Tadic (132 seats) — but even more improbable now given the state of their relationship after Tadic not only signed the SAA, but at the same time, one of Tadic’s minions publicly stabbed Kostunica in the back with an EU official.

Adding an alliance with the old Milosevic Socialists would help Tadic. (Now wouldn’t that be a real irony?) But even with the Socialists (124 total seats), Tadic would still need to pick up a minuscule leftover minority party with a few seats — who in this case are actual “minorities”, Bosniak Muslims, Presevo Albanians, Vojvodina Hungarians, etc. — to make it over the top. The real minorities love Tadic (so does Kosovo’s Hashim Thaci), so those little votes are easy, but an alliance with the Socialists would damage Tadic’s narcissistic image in the West and it would be a marriage of convenience sure to collapse at the first sign of trouble. Plus, the Socialists are unlikely to be willing to join into that little political orgy, whoever’s bed that they might otherwise be willing to get into.

In any case, Tadic has 90 days to form a new government. My bet is that if it doesn’t happen very soon, it isn’t going to happen for Tadic at all. Then one of two things will happen — either a Nikolic/Kostunica/Socialist will step in to fill the void (if they wait at all). Or it will be back to new elections and this Serbia/EU/Russia/US circus will start all over again.

Gee, aren’t we glad that “Kosovo independence” stabilized the Balkans? NOT! Kosovo has been the single biggest destabilizing factor in this Serbian political free-for-all, whether directly or indirectly, and it’s all because President Bush decided to follow Bill Clinton’s stupid political lead –right off a Balkan cliff. And we are going to be picking up the pieces of that Kosovo Independence “crash” for a long time, as far away as Tibet and “Palestine”, let alone Serbia.

Something that will not likely make an impression on the Western press is the real level of Serbian voter ambivalence in this election. Only 60% of Serbia’s eligible voters even turned out to vote at this crucial moment in Serbia’s history. Does this mean that they don’t care? Or that they can’t decide?

Well, let’s see. Pretend you are a Serbian voter and you’ve got two main choices: 1. Vote for the party that is pro-EU and promises you “a better future”, in spite of the fact that most of that EU countries supported the ripping off of 15% of your most precious territory (Kosovo), love to humiliate you every chance they get and are sending a mission to your territory without an invitation? 2. Or, vote for the party that wants to turn more toward Russia, knowing that the Russians haven’t told you what “the bill” for their support is yet, and you know that the EU & US will use you as their punching bag to an even greater extent if you vote pointing East?

So what’s your choice? Screw yourself or screw yourself?

It’s not hard to understand the Serbian feeling that there is “no right answer, the game is rigged for you to lose so you might as well not play (vote) at all”. And, every election in that last seven years for Serbia (and there have been many) has been billed by politicians & the West as as “crucial”, “make or break”, “East or West”, “EU or isolation” “life or death”. That would wear me out, too — especially when not much changes no matter who you vote for.

Although the stakes were not as high (or were they?) I can recall a similar feeling years ago, back when I couldn’t even force my hand to check the box for either “Bill Clinton” or “Bob Dole” for president — a nasty, frustrating scenario that is likely to be repeated this November, with new players but the same Catch 22 alternatives. Luckily, no one was threatening me with economic sanctions and violence as they are with Serbian voters, whatever choice I made (or were they?).

What is very certain is that the real heat on Serbia’s new government (or lack of one) is due to be turned up even higher next month:

In June, the Eulex Mission is due to be deployed to Kosovo.

In June, Kosovo’s contrived, mail-order “constitution” is due to come into effect, and the US & EU will pretend to take it seriously, even if no one else in the world does.

And, this June will be the first Serbian Vidovdan without Kosovo. Vidovdan, commemorating a time when six hundred years ago Serb Christians stood up to the Islamic invasion in spite of knowing they would lose their lives against overwhelming odds, but that generation of Serbs had the guts to do it anyway because they said to themselves, “Better a grave than a slave”. So what will this generation of Serbs and Serbians tell themselves on this Vidovdan, a date when so many significant events have taken place in Serbian history? That they are the ones who lost Kosovo, who don’t have the guts to fight for it, and who would rather be “EU slaves than graves”? Or that they are just sick of dying & killing for Western “entertainment” value.

Once again, 2008 post-election Serbia ultimately finds itself in the same predicament that Bishop Sava so eloquently described Serbia’s position in the 13th century:

“At first we were confused. The East thought that we were West while the West considered us to be East. Some of us misunderstood our place in the clash of currents so they cried that we belong to neither side and others that we belong exclusively to one side or the other. But I tell you Ireneus we are doomed by fate to be the East in the West and the West in the East, to acknowledge only heavenly Jerusalem beyond us and here on earth–no one.” —St. Sava to Irenaeus 13th Century

Must be the geography. Because few countries have been forced to fight against so many larger and more formidable powers as many times as Serbia has just for their right to exist and have a normal life — with elections and politicians that really mean so very little to the ultimate quality of their lives, no matter how hard they try to get it right.

The public opinion polls prior to the election showed the Radicals leading Tadic’s party by 1 or 2 percent points, yet according to the latest information I received from RTS (Radio Televizija Srbija) in Serbia, Tadic’s party was leading the Radicals by 39% to 28%. Looks some kind of hanky-panky was going on, like stuffing ballot boxes, destroying ballots, not counting the votes properly, hiding or destroying ballot boxes, intimidating or obstructing voters, bribing people to vote a certain way, bribing people to stay home and therefore not vote, early closing of voting stations, telling uneducated and uninformed people they were not eligible to vote and/or causing distractions to take people’s attention away from voting. Of course, there may be other possibilities besides the ones I mentioned.

This discrepancy sticks out like a tree in a desert. The EU and the pro-European Serbian parties obviously have a vested interest in winning this election. And I do not doubt for one minute that they could find a way or ways to rig it.

If the final results show such a vast discrepancy, anyone with common sense and basic intelligence would know that the election was rigged, assuming that you allow + or - 3 or 4 points (usually 3) at most for polling errors, which is the generally accepted standard. I have only seen an AP report that bases its prediction of Tadic victory on the vote count of an “independent” monitoring group. Who is this independent monitoring group? Could this be troll Jimmy Carter and his little “busy bodies” or maybe a bunch from the US state department. If so, these people should not even be allowed to enter the country at election time. They are highly accomplished in the techniques of election fraud and I would shoot them on sight rather than allow them to touch a single damn ballot.

What’s appalling the West isn’t even bothering to hide their extortion tactics anymore in the Serbian presidential elections. The message to Serbia’s citizens is clear, “Elect Nikolic and we will amputate Kosovo with a meat-ax soon, you will get no anesthetic and we will let the Albanians kill as many Kosovo Serbs as they want (and then blame it on you). Or elect “our man” Tadic and we might (if we feel like it) give you a couple of aspirin for the pain of amputating Kosovo from you and let a few more Serbs live.” It’s a “lose-lose” proposition for Serbia, as anyone can see — just as it is designed to be.

However, since the demise of Milosevic, all that Western intimidation of Serbia seems to have ever done is to drive Serbia closer to Russia. Russia’s support of Serbia in the UN Security Council on the Kosovo issue, and the Russian Gasprom deal signed with Serbia last week (which sunk the EU/US Nabucco plan and likely cost US State Department #3 man, Nicholas Burns, his job) has done more for Serbia than Western promises (and bombing) have done in the last 17 years. Combine this with the Serbian concept of “inat” (stubborn defiance in the face of bullies) and this all works in Nikolic’s favor, regardless of whether Nikolic is worth a damn or not.

But on the other hand, hope springs eternal in the human breast. For the life of them, Serbs still cannot understand why the US & EU would wish to continue punishing them and stealing their land. Serbs are Christians who speak multiple European languages and their kids want the same security & toys that other normal European kids have — and so do their parents. Based on this commonality, some Serbs believe that this torture has to stop soon — perhaps if they jump through just one more humiliating hoop then the West will see them for who they really are, perhaps if they elect just one more “pro-Western leader” then the West will recognize that Serbs ARE Europeans. This slim hope (or “wishful thinking”, depending on who you talk to) of one day maybe joining that EU “fun & goodies fraternity”, is all that Boris Tadic has to offer them. And the West knows this — which is why they had to throw in the ham-handed “club them if they don’t vote for Tadic” pressure to make the alternative even less attractive.

The big question that remains to be answered about this Western intimidation of Serbian voters to vote for Tadic in the upcoming run-off, is: “Will it work? Or will it backfire?”

Ultimately, Serbian citizens can (and should) be the ONLY ones to answer that, when they vote in the run-off election on February 3rd. It’s their fate to decide, not ours.

The problem is that this election is already tainted. Once it has become so obvious that the US and the EU have an intense, vested interest in subverting an election in Serbia, how are we supposed to believe these US and EU politicians and “international observers” when they proclaim that this election is legitimate and clean?

From what was indicated by various interviews, polls, and so forth, before the runoff election, it was not at all clear that a majority of Serbs would have been willing to follow Tadic in taking the EU route.

And let’s face it,EU membership is not worth the price

Take a good look at what’s happened in the EU lately. What with the Lisbon treaty chicanery, the bureaucratic strangulation, and the persistent sellout to jihadism, the EU is clearly turning into an ugly dictatorship itself. Maybe all of the noise that Western politicians and journalists make about Vladimir Putin supposedly being a “dictator” is only a distraction from the very real dictatorship that is taking shape in the EU.

I find it disgraceful that my own country’s government is manipulating an election somewhere else. It would be wrong no matter what the motives, but in this case, our own politicians are corrupt and they want to sell out the Balkans to petrodollar interests. It’s disgusting. But I suppose I ought to be used to it by now, considering how much vote fraud goes on in the US.

Yes, it’s very sad indeed. And although the decision is not mine to make, I would be sorry to see any more countries fall under the sway of the EU or of any organization like it.

It was telling how after the election, the Western MSM was screaming “Tadic won!”, but those who delved a little deeper to understand how the Serbian government system worked, were in for a big surprise.
Yes, it was true that Tadic’s coalition was “the biggest SINGLE winner” with 39% of the vote, it is also true that 61% of the population of Serbia did NOT vote for Tadic, but instead elected other representatives who collectively could challenge Tadic’s ability to put together a government. Yet as predicted, Tadic is pouting for the press that “no one gave a mandate to his rival, Kostunica”, which is true. But what is also true is that no one gave “a mandate” to Tadic either if he can’t get any of the other elected representatives in the Serbian Parliament to work with him!

Meanwhile, after Tadic and the so-called Democrats had sold their souls — with Tadic’s predecessor in the party also having sold off most of Serbia’s assets to global financial interests just to prove what “pro-Western capitalists” they were — Tadic this week morphed the other direction attempting to prove what a “socialists” they have always been in order to attract the Serbian Socialist Party to the “Democratic ticket”. It wasn’t too hard for them, given that Tadic’s party has belonged to Socialist International for a long time, yet this is something that has rarely been revealed in the Western press. The Tadic morph in the media from “avowed Western capitalist” to “avowed Socialist” happened so fast and so completely that it made Western readers heads spin. (But after watching Hillary try to turn herself into “a warrior princess”, and McCain meeting with La Raza, nothing should surprise us about any politician, let alone Boris Tadic.)

Tadic wasn’t alone in trying to woo the 20 Serbian Socialist seats. Even Javier Solana was heard to say, “the SPS (Socialists) does not have to continue to forever exist as the ‘’Milošević party’”, although that positive attitude to toward the Serbian Socialists well may conditional on the Socialists supporting the EU/US boy, Tadic, who needs them desperately. The EU has also told Serbia that “the EU expects a Serbian government by June 10th”. Last time I checked, Serbia was not yet an EU country, so what right has the EU to “expect” anything from Serbia?

The US was blunt about what they want in Serbia –”we expect a pro-European government”, period. The Bush Administration wants Boris Tadic in power and makes no bones about it. They might as well say, “We really don’t care what Serbian citizens want or what the Serbian Constitution says, you will do what we say because we are America!”. Enough to make me cringe, hearing this from someone who is supposed to be a diplomat, let alone an American diplomat.

The Bush Administration and the US State Department just doesn’t get it — tell Serbs what “they must do” and they give you the finger — they did the same to the Turks, they did it to Austro-Hungary, they did it to Nazi Germany and they will do the same to us. It’s who they are — a tough, strong-minded lot who value their independence over anything else — and if they haven’t broken down after seventeen years of insults, sanctions, bombing and emotional abuse, it isn’t ever going to happen. Of all the people on this planet who should understand this independent mentality, it should be us Americans — because it is precisely who we used to be.

Ironically, it is precisely “the real American” in me that hopes Serbia tells us and the EU to go to hell, and then does what it needs to do for it’s country and for its people, for freedom and real democracy, not swallowing the canned versions of “democracy”sold by NGO’s and slimy bureaucrats.

But the election is over, the votes have already been cast, and it will be a wait until we see what Serbia will make from the results of this election — meanwhile, the media will continue to place it’s bets.

I do not agree this election was victory for pro-European elements.

In the last year parliamentary elections (January 2007) SRS (Dr. Vojislav Seselj) got 28.59 percent of the votes (81 seats). This time around radicals won 29.36 percent and 78 seats (results not final). Last year they received 1,152,854 votes and this year 1,194,029. The voting body has actually increased but they lost three seats. If we compare these results with presidential elections (03.Feb.2008) where Mr. Nikolic won 2,177,872 votes, then it seems like there is a significant difference. But you cannot compare apples and oranges. Choosing between twenty-plus parties in parliamentary elections and between two persons (two largest parties in the country) in presidential elections is not the same. The latter can be used as orientation only between the two parties and in absolute number of voters won. Otherwise, we would have to conclude that radicals have lost one million voters in these elections, which is an obvious nonsense. Crucial for further analysis is to note that SRS participated in the last and this year parliamentary elections ALONE and not in coalition with other parties.

Coalition around Mr. Kostunica, DSS-NS got 16.7 percent or 672,057 votes in last parliamentary elections (47 seats) and 11.3 percent or 463,996 votes (30 seats) in these elections. The loss of 208,061 votes, in one year, is the greatest amongst all the parties and coalitions participating in these elections.

SPS (Ivica Dacic) received 5.9 percent or 235,913 votes in last parliamentary elections (16 seats) and 7.9 percent or 321,908 votes (20 seats) this time. But last time SPS participated alone, as a single party, and this time in coalition with the help of PUPS and JS they managed to gain 67,995 votes more. This coalition will probably be the key deciding factor in creation of new and stable government and majority in parliament, as well.

DS (Boris Tadic) last year got 22.71 percent or 915,051 votes (64 seats) ALONE. This year DS was in pro-EU coalition (anti-Serbian) with G17 plus, SPO, LSV and SDP. They won 38.44 percent or 1,575,393 votes (102 seats) IN COALITION with four other parties. By itself, alone, DS got 65 seats, which is almost identical with what they had before. If, in the case of DS on its own (as we did in the case of SRS above) we compare these last parliamentary elections results with the presidential results (03.Feb.2008) where Tadic, in second round, won 2,294,605 votes, we can conclude that demono-crats lost significant amount of votes (more then 700,000). How can anyone, after the above, claim that this demono-cratic Antichrist’s block is the winning one, and by what facts and criteria this ridicules statement could be supported or defended?! But wait, they actually can since in their case their father is the Liar and with him they all stand in lies.

LDP (Cedomir Jovanovic) last year participated in coalition with GSS, SDU and LSV and received 6 percent or 241,757 votes (15 seats). This year they were alone and got 5.24 percent or 214,752 votes (13 seats) hardly passing the five percent census level. If you compare only the voters of LDP from last year (211,145) to this year (214,752) their voting body increased for 3,607 votes.

Negotiations in principal between SRS and DSS-NS coalition were successful, so far, and SRS will talk to SPS-PUPS-JS coalition with good chances of reaching an agreement. This means 78+30+20 seats=128 seats and majority in parliament. It looks as one of minority parties Bosniac coalition (2 seats) might decide to be part of this truly victorious group, too. If this happens total seats for pro Serbian block would be 128+2=130 seats in parliament.

If you read western newspapers or listen to reports in the electronic media concerning the results of Sunday’s elections in Serbia, then you may be forgiven for thinking that the outcome clarifies the political situation in that country and that the “pro-Western” and “pro-European Union” parties had won a decisive victory against the “ultranationalists” or simply the “nationalists.” Unfortunately, the political situation is as murky as it was before the elections and in fact, despite a significant success at the polls, the coalition gathered around President Boris Tadic (and the proud defenders of Serbia ’s march into the EU) could find themselves in the opposition benches in parliament and at the losing end of coalition-forming mathematics.

The bottom line is that in order for anyone to form a government it is necessary to have a simple majority of 126 votes in parliament. There are at least a variety of different ways of forming a majority based on the election results, most of them center around the victorious Democratic Party led coalition and their 102 seats in parliament. I will simply list the plausible majority forming possibilities:

• For A European Serbia (Tadic led coalition - 102), The Liberal Democratic Party (14), minority parties (7) and the Socialist Party of Serbia / PUPS/JS (coalition led by Slobodan Milosevic’s former party , 20) — total of 143

• For a European Serbia (102), SPS (20) and minority parties (7) – total of 129

• For a European Serbia (102), Democratic Party Of Serbia/New Serbia coalition (led by outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, 30) and SPS (20) – total of 152

• For a European Serbia (102) and the DSS/NS (30) – total of 132

• For a European Serbia (102) and SPS (20) – total of 122 leading to a minority government that would need the support of either the LDP (14) or the minority parties (7)

• For a European Serbia (102), LDP (14) and minority parties (7) – total of 123 leading to a minority government that would need the support of the SPS

• The Radical Party (77), DSS/NS (30) and SPS (20) – total of 127

• The Radical Party (77), DSS/NS (30), SPS (20) and either the Hungarian Coalition (4) or the Bosniak Coalition (2), or both – Total of 131, 129 or 133.

When you add the possibility of defections, bought/sold votes and fragility of coalitions, then the mathematical possibilities are even more mind spinning. Anything seems possible and no one can with any great certainty maintain confidence that they will either be in or out of a ruling coalition. Of course it is also possible that no one will be able to harness enough votes to form a majority and that this would lead yet again to elections. Leaving all of the numbers aside, it is possible to make a few general observations concerning Serbia ’s possible political landscape.

First, the success of the Tadic-led coalition, although impressive and for many observers unexpected is far from a clear mandate for Serbia’s near future and upon closer examination leaves many important questions unanswered. To begin with, Serbia has been and continues to be a divided society that seems to lack the basic starting points for compromise and any consensus over major issues that define these divisions. There is consensus over Serbia ’s ambition to join the European Union, all of the above mentioned political parties, including the Radicals and Kostunica’s DSS, at least in public statements support joining the European Union. This consensus however begins to thin-out when the question of Kosovo’s independence is added to the equation. Even Tadic’s Democratic Party (DS) supports entry into the EU with Kosovo as a part of Serbia . The division in Serbian society is almost a 50/50 split where about 50 percent of the voters support entry into the EU as the greatest national priority even if at the cost of losing Kosovo; while 50 percent see preserving territorial integrity and national dignity as being the greatest national priority even if EU membership is postponed or even left unattained. The fact that President Tadic and his coalition had to create at least the hope that both membership in the EU and the preservation of Serbia’s territorial integrity were both possible and compatible shows that Kosovo’s independence will continue to be, for the foreseeable future, an important obstacle to both Serbia’s aspiration to join the EU as well as to achieving political stability within the country.

This brings us to the question of outside involvement in Serbia ’s politics. EU officials and American officials not only hoped for a clear mandate for Tadic’s coalition but they actively worked to help achieve this result. It would be logical to conclude that they designated this coalition as being “pro-European” not only because they feared what they saw as a possible victory for “nationalists,” but more importantly, they hoped that a Tadic victory would lead to greater flexibility in Belgrade over Kosovo’s independence. In fact the two issues that have come to define what EU and American officials see as being the litmus tests for the “pro-EU” and “pro-Western” labels, the arrest and extradition of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic and a more flexible and accommodating policy toward Kosovo’s independence are far from being resolved to their satisfaction and expectations following these elections.

The reality is that even if Tadic and his coalition partners are insincere in their commitment to fight for Serbia ’s territorial integrity, they are not in a position to significantly change the course of governmental policy on Kosovo. If they form a coalition they will have to have the support of the Socialist-led coalition that cannot betray its voters, who overwhelmingly share the Radical Party’s suspicion of the West and anger over America’s and EU states’ sponsorship and recognition of an independent Kosovo. To do so would be to invite massive voter defection back to the Radical Party. After having fought for eight years to reclaim at least part of their voter base from the Radicals and Kostunica’s DSS, it is unimaginable that any Socialist leader would risk even greater future election success in order to gain temporary power in a highly unstable ruling coalition. Tadic may find that he has rid himself of the inflexible DSS only to embrace an equally inflexible SPS when it comes to Kosovo. In short there is no clear mandate when it comes to sacrificing Kosovo for EU membership.

It must also be noted that Tadic’s election success had little to do with EU officials and their efforts to “assist” him, where often it appeared that they were doing their best to insure his defeat. The comical argument between European officials over what was signed with Serbia (was the SAA signed with Serbia including Kosovo or without) almost negated even its symbolic value and was only one of the missteps committed by EU officials during the campaign. All of this led Rasim Ljajic, one of Tadic’s coalition partners to suggest that if these officials really wanted to help them that they should “simply shut-up.” In all likelihood, Tadic probably feels little gratitude and even less indebtedness to the EU and this may not be all that bad when it comes to possible compromises in the upcoming negotiations to form a government.

Tadic in effect has reformulated a mini DOS (the Democratic Opposition of Serbia that beat Milosevic) where the only common interest that would bring at least six political parties (five in his coalition plus at least one partner from other parliamentary parties) together would simply be their desire for power. Within this type of ruling coalition there would be at least one party that openly advocated recognition (if only indirectly) of Kosovo’s independence and at least one that was determined to oppose it for forever if necessary. Ideologically there will be those that embrace nationalism and those that completely despise it. One of the biggest problems will of course be dividing the spoils of victory so that every party leader feels satisfied with his position in government and his portion of the remaining public enterprises and utilities. Zoran Djindjic was a much more gifted politician and political manager than Boris Tadic has proven himself to be, but he was barely able to maintain even the most basic common course for his bickering, overly sensitive and stubborn coalition partners during his brief tenure as Prime Minister. Boris Tadic will have even a more difficult time in trying to manage a similar hodge podge of “one percenters” (parties that cannot reach the minimal census needed to enter parliament by themselves) and at least one junior partner that will feel themselves to be the king makers and that could at anytime and even on a whim end the coalition’s rule. Tadic would in effect become a prisoner of uncontrollable and unreliable partners that could cost both his party and him long term political success.

Another observation that can be made is that Radical Party’s election set-back shows that this party can no longer count on the support of the dissatisfied and disgruntled casualties of Serbia ’s democratic transition. If they want to maintain their voter base and possibly even expand it, they need to completely step away from their past as Milosevic’s junior partner and redefine themselves as a party with the capacity to rule. In order to do this they need to completely distance themselves from their founder and current president, Vojislav Seselj. The Radicals have attained the maximal results possible with Seselj be he in Belgrade or in the Hague, to progress further they need to assume a more independent and self-sufficient identity, one that acknowledges Seselj and his historic role as party founder but one that firmly ends his control and manipulation of the party. Anything short of this will continue to mark the gradual decline of the Radicals regardless of if they are soon a part of a ruling coalition.

Perhaps the most important development for Serbia that can result from these elections may be finally laying to rest the 1990s period of confrontation, isolation and conflict. The divisions between Milosevic’s Serbia and the Serbia of opposition to his regime would be united in any coalition in which the Socialists would participate. This would be more definitive if Tadic’s DS will partner with the SPS, but it will also be true if the SPS and Radicals will partner with Kostunica’s DSS. The DS was the party of the architect and manager, Djindjic, of the opposition victory over Milosevic in 2000 while Kostunica was the man who beat him at the polls. Now both men’s parties would eagerly return the Socialists to power. For Serbia this marks the end of an era of bitter political confrontation but may mark the beginning of a new one that is no less bitter and divisive. Either way, these elections will not produce a clearer direction for Serbia ’s continued transition nor will it necessarily lead to greater stability. In the end, these elections have done little to end the national angst and uncertainty within Serbia over its future. Serbia will continue to muddle through fractious politics, inefficient governance and in general, uncertainty over where it is headed. The best that can be hoped for is that this is done without violence and within the fragile institutions of government. This is not ideal but it is better than what came before it and it comes in spite of the bumbling and often hypocritical assistance/interference from the European Union and the US . This will have to do for now.

[...] Or as Jonathon Davis writes, [...]

[...] touch with me next time you are in Belgrade. I am a fellow writer on Pajama’s Media [here and here ], a fan and an ideological fellow [...]