The Opposition in Serbia, has it not easy: The media are connected, President Vucic has full control over the police and judiciary. And again and again, opposition politicians are victims of violence.
Borko Stefanovic: “The characteristics of fascism”
It was like in a cheap detective story: As Borko Stefanovic at the parish house came in the Central Serbian city of Krusevac, where he was to participate as one of the prominent opposition politician in a debate, waited the seven, dressed in black and partially masked men on him. You are struck immediately – a metal rod hit his head. Stefanovic lost consciousness, the attackers were on him, exactly like two-party friends, who stayed with us for Stefanovic to help.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the unrestricted ruler of the Balkan country, reported a few hours later and was satisfied with the quick response of the police: two of the attackers were arrested, a third is being sought. He regretted “the incident” and assured that Serbia is allowed to propose a state of law “in which no one unpunished”.
Not An Isolated Case
For the ‘Pact for Serbia’, an opposition Pact, which also includes the party ‘The Left of Serbia’, this appearance of the President to the summit of insolence. “The attack is the result of a dirty smear campaign organised by the Regime of Aleksandar Vucic against the political opponents on a daily basis,” reads a statement from the Alliance, released shortly after the Robbery. Vucic has usurped “almost the entire media landscape and brought into line, so to anyone who dares to think differently is hung a target on the back”, – stated in the response. “The hate speech is now moving towards the physical violence and smashed heads.”
Dario Hajric: “violence is always applied very selectively”
The attack on Borko Stefanovic is not an isolated case. In December last year, during the municipal elections, especially in smaller cities, several cases of intimidation of opposition candidates and voters. The campaign events have been disrupted by thugs, who were black cars without license plates on the road. In February an information meeting was raided two smaller opposition parties, in a suburb of Belgrade, the info was destroyed state and the activists insulted and threatened. And the Same experienced opposition politician in the Northern Serbian Novi Sad in September. In all of these cases, the perpetrators remained undetected.
“Characteristics of fascism”
“It is a new Phase of hostility in a society that has divided the Regime,” says Stefanovic Interview in a DW. “It is the Regime of Vucic, has created an atmosphere of Lynch-justice, persecution and physical violence at the
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Agenda.” He himself had been attacked, says Stefanovic. “Here we have a mood in which all dissenters silenced, and now you are attacked physically. These are all the characteristics of fascism,” says the opposition politician.
It is an atmosphere of fear and a widespread sense of powerlessness that characterize today’s society in Serbia, writes a Belgrade sociologist Dario Hajric in his Text for the DW. Violence applied will, however, always very specifically that it was not spontaneous and wild outbreaks of violence. “Stefanovic and his companions beat up no more unpredictable Mob, as well as always be egged on, because nothing was in this attack, spontaneously.”
The purpose of a permanent campaign of the conformist Mainstream media against the Opposition, was not so much to create the conditions for an Explosion of violence, but rather “to the attention of the Public, to distract, if someone sends in the goon squads to show who is the master in the house,” said Hajric.
Like the cockroaches
More and more observers of the situation in Serbia, a comparison with the Situation in the 1990s, forcing himself, as Slobodan Milosevic dominated in a similar way, the country as it is today Vucic. Then, too, the media were gagged and political violence was on the agenda. And the Opposition was a lump sum accused of being treacherous and the enemies of the country and the people in a common cause.
“We are now in a Phase in which people believe, it is the representatives of the Opposition is quite legitimate to attack – physically. For the media, poisoned humans, we are not more valuable than cockroaches,” said Borko Stefanovic. Therefore, his bloody shirt was the true Flag of Serbia, so the opposition politicians.
Facebook page of the opposition bündnises “Bündis for Serbia” – Stefanovic shows his bloody shirt