Serbian Election: Socialists, the Unexpected Kingmakers
Last Sunday night, as the results of Serbia’s parliamentary elections became known, the country’s President Boris Tadić made a remarkable statement. “I warn the parties that have lost this election,” he declared, “not to play games with the will of the citizens and try to form a government that would take Serbia back to the 1990s. I will not allow any such government and I will prevent it by democratic means.” This was not just an ill-considered gaffe in the heat of the election night: on Wednesday he was at it again, criticizing attempts by his political opponents to form the government and pledging to “defend the will of the people with all democratic and legitimate means.”
The implications of Mr. Tadić’s statement are clear, and alarming:
- There exists a “will of the citizens” (or “people”) that is distinct to, and in this case different from that expressed in the distribution of mandates in the National Assembly;
- The “losers”—by which he means the outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Radicals (SRS)—would plunge Serbia into wars and isolation (“back to the 1990s”).
- It is within Tadić’s power as head of state to prevent the emergence of a coalition government not to his liking, even if such a coalition were to be supported by the majority of parliamentary deputies.
Tadić’s first claim harks back to Rousseau’s volonté générale that properly guides the decisions of a civil society, rather than the sum of their individual self-interests, the volonté de tous. His assertion is in line with the postmodern USA-EU understanding of “democracy,” which judges a process democratic entirely on the basis of the “rightness” of its outcome. His European and American mentors have long used the term “democracy” as an ideological concept. It does not signify broad participation of informed citizens in the business of governance, but it denotes the desirable social and political content of ostensibly popular decisions. The process likely to produce undesirable outcomes—a sovereignist coalition government in Belgrade, say, or a “no” vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty—is a priori “undemocratic.” Contrary to his frankly outrageous claim, the common good is an aggregate of private interests which needs balancing and fine-tuning through the institutions of representative democracy. After such outbursts it is ridiculous to misrepresent Tadić as a “pro-Western democrat,” although he is certain to be thus described in a thousand MSM reports that are yet to be written.
Tadić’s Democratic Party (DS) did well at the election, considerably better than expected, but it did not “win.” With 102 deputies in the 250-seat assembly, the Democrats will be 24 seats short of the working majority. Even with the like-minded Liberal Democratic Party of Čedomir Jovanović (14 deputies) and a couple of small ethnic minority parties (Hungarians, Sanjak Muslims), the DS cannot reach the magic number.
The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), with 20 deputies, is now the decisive factor in the equation, certain to decide the shape of the next ruling coalition. It will likely join forces with Koštunica’s DSS (30 deputies) and the Radicals (78) to create a government with a slim but workable majority. Its leader Ivica Dačić may yet be tempted by the DS, which is certain to make him a generous offer, but his party leadership has warned him that any such deal would split the party. It still includes numerous Milošević loyalists who have not forgiven the Democrats—then led by the late prime minister Zoran Djindjić—the delivery of their leader to The Hague in 2001.
An agreement is already said to be in place between Dačić, Koštunica and the SRS to share power in the city of Belgrade, with the Radicals’ No. 3, Aleksandar Vučić, becoming the new Mayor. The speed and ease with which the deal was struck on the country’s second most important government structure—with its many rich pickings—bodes ill for Tadić’s hopes that the SPS may yet be swayed his way.
The pro-Western camp is nevertheless trying hard. After almost a decade of relentless political and media campaign by the DS and its allies against the SPS, after years of public demonization of its late leader, the “Euro-reformist forces” have suddenly discovered that the Socialists are eminently salonfaehig. Tadić is now declaring that there are practically no ideological differences between the heirs to Milošević and his own followers, as they are both true to the principles of the Socialist International. Yet less than two years ago, when this same Socialist Party—under the same leader and with the same program—supported Koštunica’s minority goverrnment, it was pilloried by the Euro-reformers as a dark and temporary remnant of Serbia’s unpleasant past.
Even if he manages to cobble together yet another coalition with himself at the helm, the biggest loser of the election is my old friend Vojislav Koštunica. He is a well-meaning man of principle, as we all know, and his decision on March 8 to “return the mandate to the people” may have been the honorable thing to do—but in the midst of the Kosovo crisis it was neither prudent nor conducive to the country’s best interests. Within the previous parliament, elected on January 21 2007, a “sovereignist” majority could have been created with far greater ease than today. Dr. Koštunica is now paying the price of his reluctance to part ways with the Eurofanatics and strike a solid deal with the Radicals a year ago, as many of his friends and supporters had urged him to do at the time and as it was certainly in his power to do.
Serbia is now more polarized and more evenly divided, but it is nevertheless far from having an “Euro-reformist” majority, as Mr. Tadić and his allies would have us believe. His DS-led coalition and the LDP, let us repeat, have 116 deputies. That is well below the score for the SRS-DSS-led emerging alliance, which is likely to stand firm on the defense of Serbia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and international legality.
After almost 8 years in the wilderness the Socialists are Belgrade’s unexpected kingmakers. It is to be hoped that by doing the right thing now they will atone for at least some of the many mistakes and misdemeanors of which they were guilty while running Serbia under Milošević. It is also to be hoped that Mr. Tadić will respect his constitutional prerogatives and accordingly refrain from any attempt to resist the will of the people, as expressed by their democratically elected deputies.
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#49 Walter
Thank you for your wonderful commentary!
SAMO INAT SERBINA SPASAVA - that is also very good, and relevant!
What I really want to say is that - as it is now, dear Serbs,
THE EU DOES NOT WISH YOU WELL!!!
Please, for your own sakes, do not forget it and draw your own conclusions!
@41Goran
Where do you get the book Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic” by John Laughland I would prefer to get it from a UK book shop rather than amazon.
Is there any critical documentaries about the trial. They had one screened on BBC 4 but it was a pro western farce and the only criticism of it that they had was that it was taking to long to convict Milosevic.
Actually since the trail was stopped dead (quite literally) I was waiting for Andy Wilcoxson http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org to do a documentary about it but since he reported on the trail in his free time and doesn't get paid for it I guess he does not have the financial backing to produce it.
Walter
In reply to what you stated in #47, the situation isn't helped with Serbs fighting each other in all out war. A point that you acknowledge.
In this sense, the mentioned slogan isn't incorrect.
You seem to question the historical validity of that quote. How has it been so wrong? Of course, other factors besides it have influenced Serbia's predicament.
#53 Michael Averko,
The slogan CCCC - Само слога Србина спасава, or in Latin alphabet SSSS - Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava was never true in Serbian history, period, no matter what alphabet one uses. I personally to not like slogans that aren’t true. This slogan actually challenges Serbia’s enemies into dividing Serbs, as they have throughout Serbian history. It is sad but it is true, and I recognize the reality of the Serbian saga of struggle for the elusive unity. Actually I believe no ethnic group lived up to this slogan, period.
You seem to question the historical validity of that quote. How has it been so wrong? Of course, other factors besides it have influenced Serbia’s predicament.
I question the validity of anything that isn’t true, historically or otherwise. Well it has never been true, I am not trying to rub salt in the wound, but please name a period in time when CCCC was true in Serbian history? My intent was to show that just using empty slogans does not guarantee unity, and it certainly will not save Serbia as the slogan implies. If the slogan was true that would imply that Serbs were unified by a great Serbian leader and all Serbs would be living in one large or great Serbia, just like Germans in Germany, Italians in Italy, etc. You are trying to argue for the sake of arguing here Michael, I am not the enemy.
A more modern and more appropriate slogan should be Samo Inat Srbina Spasava.
I was just making a point that Serbian predicament can be directly attributed to outsiders, throughout Serbian history outside powers have used treachery to divide and conquer Serbs. The latest outsiders are actually EU and US, both have bloody hands in the civil wars of 1991/92-1999, so why would Serbs want to join their enemy, what could US and EU do to Serbs and Serbia before Serbs wake up and smell the roses? I know you would like me to use the other slogan here, if you can beat them join them, let’s just say that I disagree.
My message is very clear No to EU and no to NATO, and Samo Inat Srbina Spasava.
As far as I can remember, central part of Serbian flag is a cross with four sickles symmetrically positioned around it. They face back to back as a mirror image vertically. These sickles remotely resemble Cyrillic letter S. There is no written logo on this flag.
Symbolics and meanings added to this image are therefore meaningless and disrespectful.
On the other hand, American currency carries logo: " in God we trust". I would not comment this further.
Wehrmacht soldiers had written: "Got mit uns" on belt buckle. I shall not comment this either.
Walter:
I didn't say or suggest that you're "the enemy."
I initially posted that quote in reply to comments about a hypothetical war among Serbs.
Like it or not, that quote is reality as per its existence.
I don't believe it's historically correct to dismiss it altogether.
Walter, I repeat, there will be no civil war. The only thing the DS says is that if the Government of the national unity is formed, they will call for peaceful demonstrations. The same is said by the meaningless 5,2% of the votes LDP. I mean, they better call upon the people to work and promote some real democratic values than waste their energy.
Tadic proved to be main loser of these elections, not Kostunica.
Here is why: nothwithstanding the fact that he took a bit more than 38 % of the vote, it was rather easy for him to see before the elections that this situation will ensue. He was blind to see that he needed a partner for an after-election coalition. He decided to 'defend' Kosovo strictly orally and not meaningfully. Thus he opened the way for the creation of the new government. Had Tadic sued the states that illegally recognized illegal independence of Kosovo before the ICJ, as urged my many, he would not have been in this position. But, he failed to do that and remember, that was one of the reasons the former Government had been disbanded by Kostunica.
So, Walter, this is how I defend the thesis that Serbs did not forget Kosovo.
@james@52:
John Laughland's 'Travesty' is published in the UK by Pluto Press.
And, Walter, please do not forget that Tadic nominally shouts: 'We shall never give up Kosovo' to his voters. I don't see him as meaning it, but many of his voters voted for him in the naive belief that he would fight for it in earnest. Do you see what I mean? Tadic's voters are NOT for the Kosovo to be given up, but voted for him in the naive belief that he really means it!
Divide et impera.
http://www.sps.org.yu :
19 May 2008
Deputy President of Socialist Party of Serbia Dr. Žarko Obradović said last night on the "Impressions of the Week" TV B92 show that Socialists were not sitting on two chairs and that, during the ongoing negotiations, they would not negotiate with any other party.
"There is good will, but that is the beginning of the story; the first phase is done while two thirds of the job remain", said Obradović.
Slobodan Samardžić and Dragan Đilas who were also guests of the show estimated that, with the agreement between the radicals, nationalists and socialists on the principles for forming the government, only the first phase was over, and that this did not mean that a ruling coalition would be formed with these participants.
The second phase follows, which ought to adjust the coalition agreement, while the third phase would be the agreement on staffing, stated Samardžić.
Nothing illustrates the moral bankrupcy of the present DSS than having to tacitly support the statement of the jailed imbecile today. Kostunica will lose little credibility that he has left by keeping quiet. I hope that at least you Dr. Trifkovic realize how grave all this really is. There is no excuse. You can go on and on about how such behavior is really a virtue and how this is somehow a prisoner of conscience and therefore should be forgiven. But by giving your tacit support, you are just prolonging the Serbian national nightmare which because of this kind of mentality will have to end in blodshed pretty soon.
# 60 jack bailey your "democrats" were so bad in governing Serbia that people of Serbia do not want them for a while. COOL off!!! Or, go to the Serbian occupied province of Kosmet and fight Squiptars and NATO . Bring democracy to poor Serbs there.
It is indicative for Tadic's "democrats" that they don’t want, under any circumstances, to relinquish the power!! Even if it would lead to bloodshed and war --- Radicals showed throughout these last fifteen years that they can co-op with defeat although they have always been victorious party. Now that Kostunica does not have much choice Tadic wants war. Since any call for bloodshed and war should be treated as danger to peace and stability of the country, those politicians who advocate bloodshed should be jailed immediately.
@jack bailey:
Have you read the new Carla del Ponte book? If you did, you would have relized that she met with somebody at the Amsterdam airport who told her as follows: 'Take Seselj with you and don't send him back to us to Serbia'. Do you know who was the one who said that to Carla del Ponte?
Jack, that statement you are refering to is purely result of personal anymosity and nothing else.
The Government condemned the statement earlier today, but as I said, it was made for personal reasons by the 'imbecile', as you call him, who is jailed in The Hague for 6 years for verbal delict indeed. The prosecution witnesses are demolished overthere by that 'imbecile'. Would you like to be jailed for 6 years for basically nothing under the said circumstances? Would you like me to sort it out for you just like that with the ICTY prosecutors? What would you say and think about me?
Milosevic was also sent to The Hague ilegally by the DS and he died there. So, please, do get some proper picture.
And will you stop telling us constantly about some 'nightmare' and 'bloodshed' beacuse you sound as a prophet of doom.
Divide et divide et divide et divide et divide et divide et divide....(shall I go on?)..
Mr. Baily and Mr. Averko have both been very much correct and very frequently given constructive criticism - I see no reason for personal attacks, even Boba who is 99.9% on the money, found her 0.01% error. I am sorry to witness it. During my last two visits to Serbia 2002 and 2004 I have not witnessed any democracy as it is known elsewhere - this pseudo-mutant political state is named democracy only in relation to the dangers of communism/socialism which looms dangerously behind all those blue or yellow cloaks. Curb your lavis spirits and look at Serbia with constructive criticism - she needs it, otherwise as you have all seen in Serbian press, everybody is making aliances with everybody else - smells a little of Weimar Republic and we know what happened after that failed.
lavis = lavish, pardon me, while you can always count on my typos, you can't count on me to be too forgiving to my birthcountry going through a nastry "transition" eternaly.
@Iliya Pavlovich:
You should live in Serbia, your homeland. Being too far from your own land for too long is dangerous. It is not good for the mind of a man. Serbia is not perfect, but I cannot see your goodself seeing it properly. To say that it smells like Weimar Republic...You live in the UK, I guess? "Hundred times repeated lie becomes truth", that is what I think about the British press, for instance. But, I do not believe in that "proverb" being true. For had that been true, Goebbels would not have ended in the way he did.
Jack Bailey and Mike Averko are two completely different people.
Mr. Bailey,
UDBA! Undemocratic!! Bloodshed to come!!!
Pleeeeeease contain yourself, sir.
As I have mentioned to you earlier: see the calamity writ large in the west and then place Serbia within its proper context and not some inflated position.
For if I were to judge the three presidential candidates being foisted upon us as "choices" and how that came to be I might also smell something of a security apparatus at work, something distinctly undemocratic, and something that will definately lead to bloodshed (at least abroad, when the next wars come to pass). Now, if you really believe these three "public servents" to be cast from the same mold as Washington and Jefferson, well, then, I'm not sure that there is much I could explain to you. And if you also choose to ignore Dr. Kostunica's record of integrity with respect to constitutionally derived authority, not to mention his respect for western democratic traditions (he translated key early American documents into Serbian for goodness sake!), well, then, what can I really say when you condemn the man?
Dr. T. nice new picture... you went from looking like my little buddy Andy (one of the smarter or smartest kids in the class) to suddenly like Peter Lawford in The Thin Man.
Remember also Patrick McGoohan in Secret Agent Man? They give him newer number and take away his name.
Sexy. Wow you look younger than 54'ish. Stay so...get up each day and admit that in reality you're not getting older you're getting younger.
No I shouldn't live in Serbia, thank you very much. It pains me to see things in Serbia that I see every so many years that I come to visit. When I do visit I don't stay in my birthtown only - I travel from Kosovo to Subotica without fail, often including Montenegro, spent many years there as a tour guide in my youth, madly in love with every word Njegos ever wrote - all that, I have here with me so I don't need the dog chasing his tail style of political intrigue that I read about in the Serbian press (Blic, Politika, Kurir, RTS, etc.). A few freshly painted buildings in Knez Mihajlova street do not lift the poverty of Leskovac, Berane and Southernmost regions. The loud pro-Hungarian rants in Indjija, Novi Sad and Subotica are most annoying. I don't think of that as democracy - Serbians who were and are in the majority behave as if they were the only minority. On account of some warped pluralism imported from God knows what God awful source, the country is thumbing its nose at itself. The plumbing at half of my friends' homes is terrible. Thank you for inviting me, but I'll stay exactly where I am - I enjoy the West, but I can not be indifferent when I see the self-destruction that Serbia is sometimes headed for (other times less visibly, yet at present quite inevitably). The entire Kosovo farce has been used by every "politician" only to further his own goals. As if signing up the "Russian solution" takes you away from "Europe" - do you not know that you ARE in Europe no matter who says what to whom. Serbian form of "pluralism" is an absolute abortion and it (seems to me) must have been designed in the West to reduce the Serbian influence in Serbian government - since now (but never before in my lifetime) we have the Roma, the Gypsies, even the Egyptians, Hungarians. Tots, Sandzak Muslims, etc. etc. Get my drift? Everybody and their mother live in Serbia but I hear of very few Serbians having any rights or self-determination. If I were to spend another week there I'd end up in Padnska Skela (jail). That's my stand towards the present day politickingin Serbia. Radoje Domanovic was a visionary.
For a good few years I have been claiming that islam is not a bona-fide religion (faith) as it wishes to pass itself the world over. It is only a CULT. The essential elements of faith are lacking, Temple, prayer, a book with an apparent moral codex, are not enough for Islam to consider itself a faith. It advocates murder (overtly) and it promotes hatred and discrimination (even amongst their own ilk). However this is no longer a topic I wish to discuss.
I was equally crucified by claiming that communism is alive and well in Serbia as much as in many countries of the former Yugoslavia. It is a nasty coincidence that during the EU rotating presidency it was a Slovene Foreign Secretery Dimitry Rupel was an admitted Communist who was expelled from the Communist Party and fought tooth and nail to be re-admitted. Today his Communist training is evidences in his encouraging the 3% of the Kosovo population go traspass on 15% of Serbian lands. It is this exact act that proves what a good communist Rupel was brought out to be. Communism's main target was the reducing "Serbian hegemony" (or influence/strength, etc.)
Therefore partitioning Serbia further and further indeed goes well in keeping with the Communist School of Thought. The Communists in Serbia are following the same line of thinking - partition Kosovo, Vojvodina, Sandzak, etc. Even the DS which deems itself largely non-communist has made and supported anti-Serbian moves. Every so often I find a befitting sentence by Njegos or Shakespeare. Every Serbian should now ask: Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
So much for all those delusional views that democracy in Serbia is fully functional. Those that can read Serbian may feast their eyes on Rupel's deeply submerged communism in the Serbian daily Politika at the following URL: http://www.politika.co.yu/rubrike/redakcijski-komentari/Krivolov.sr.html
Yet another Rupel joke: http://www.politika.co.yu/rubrike/redakcijski-komentari/Kostur-u-ormanu.sr.html
Dearest Boba,
I have been following your articles, interviews and decidedly clever replies to most of what concerns the current affairs in Serbia – but within this topic, you may have been blindsided or just plain wrong.
You seem to have suggested that one of the participants should visit Kosovo and continue his fight over there. I am scheduled to go to Serbia this Summer again – and I’ll be happy to give you my first hand report on KiM.
This is my objection. Within the functioning of the present government structure in Belgrade there seems to be a good number of neo-UDBA members of post-communism – just as I illustrated in the case of Dimitry Rupel. This excludes a whole new group of “Rent-A-Serbian” which is painfully obvious reading the Politika commentaries.
If Serbian officials had sufficient knowledge of the English language they can only learn and benefit from the articles of Dr. Trifkovic, your own contribution, Messrs. Averko and Baily, without any of them having to go to Kosovo and without any of them having abandoned their Serbian heritage. I continue to enjoy gibanica, kolo and many other things Serbian, but I don’t have to live in a hornets’ nest to be able to make the deaf ones regain their hearing – my presence won’t help. In my own case (and I suspect some others too) it is exactly the exposure to free thinking and the free idea exchange that some of the clever ideas have come to fruition. Don’t forget that Benjamin Franklin walked into the British Parliament as a British subject from the colonies, but walked out as an American patriot and revolutionary. Sometimes being away from home give you a far clearer perspective….
Neo-UDBA = UDBA jugend, anybody that ever held a membership in the Communist party at any level.
Dr. Trifkovic, do you have any information about the pre-election coalition agreement between SPS, PUPS, and JS? Would it be possible for JS, led by Dragan Markovic, to leave this coalition with their 3 seats, and join together with DS? With this in mind, what is your prognosis about the likelihood of a national government involving SRS, DSS, and SPS?