It will take many years to repair the damage caused to Serbia by the SNS through its disastrous actions, but it is possible to address these issues. The clientelist networks and negative selection are eroding our social and national fabric, while corruption serves as a tool in the hybrid war that the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is waging against Serbia, says Miloš Jovanović, the leader of the New Democratic Party of Serbia (Nova DSS) in an interview for NIN.
"For change to take place in Serbia, the most important thing is that there is a structure of organised people."
As he says, before we ask a question of how to approach the Belgrade elections, we need to decide whether we should participate at all, because “if the elections are not fair, they should not be held at all”.
Has democracy in Serbia been nullified? The current ruling party has established a new oligarchy, which, through manipulated elections, could perpetually remain in power, akin to Putin’s regime?
I don’t know the situation in Russia, but Putin is not reducing the territory of Russia, quite the opposite. As for democracy in Serbia, the situation is getting worse, the pressure and blackmail of citizens are increasing, clientelist networks and negative selection are eroding our social and national fabric, while corruption serves as a tool in the hybrid war that the SNS is waging against Serbia. It is futile to waste words on the media image, vulgarity, primitivism and the Goebbelsian propaganda, which is constantly broadcast by the regime media. But I have no doubt that Serbia and its people will prevail in this fight between the unworthy regime and Serbia.
The oligarchy is also preparing its successors, is it the son of Ivica Dačić, or the grandson of Slobodan Milošević...?
The oligarchy you mention can do whatever it wants, but in the end it will just be remembered as a dark chapter in our country’s history. It will take many years to repair the damage that the SNS caused to Serbia through its disastrous actions, but it is possible to address these issues. It is important to start. One crucial change for the future is the change of the political system, the introduction of the majority electoral system, which will dismantle the party state, the cancer of society, because it implies theft and negative selection. Above all, we need to restore faith in the general interest and public good, to restore self-respect and pride, to have our famous ancestors inspire us, and not to forget them and make their past sacrifices meaningless with today’s weakness.
How to fight against the black-red oligarchy if you say, “We need regular elections,” and they respond, “We won’t do it, what can you do?”
It’s not just about them. The opposition is also there. And first of all, there are citizens whom the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) despises, which is obvious from the sheer volume of lies they are unscrupulously showered with and the way they are moved from place to place to manipulate election results. The footage from Mala Krsna is painful to watch, and that seems to be the image of Serbia in 2024. This is the image of the SNS Serbia. But in the end, when you scorn the people, they return the favor in kind.
NIN / Mitar Mitrović
How do we counter the SNS politics, which has reduced itself to a container full of dinars, and it started from Karlobag-Ogulin-Virovitica?
With determination, truth, on-the-ground work, and readiness for both institutional and non-institutional struggle. We have signed an agreement with the Proglas (Provote) and the Serbian People’s Party (SNP) for a joint front in the fight for normal, fair, and honest elections that we no longer have. It is not a coalition, it is a fight for a normal, democratic society. It is excellent news that public figures, like those who make up the Proglas, have joined this fight because it concerns all citizens.
Why did the president appoint Ana Brnabić as the head of the Assembly?
I have always perceived Ana Brnabić’s appearance and her political engagement as an instrument of humiliation for Serbia. The question is whether there is even a good candidate for the President of the Assembly in the ruling coalition, because they all come from the same mould that makes them uncouth, arrogant, and ill-mannered, devoid of the desire and will to engage in genuine dialogue and reasoned debate and it is not at all certain that they can produce even a somewhat normal candidate. As their Kosovo policy becomes increasingly exposed, with the ultimate result being the recognition of secession of our southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, which is pure betrayal, the situation will worsen because they will do everything to cover up that fact.
How will you approach the elections? Will you run as a united front or in two columns?
It is too early to discuss this. Before we ask a question of how to approach the elections, we need to decide whether we should participate at all and can there be elections if they are not fair? Running for the elections makes sense only if elementary requirements for holding fair elections are met - a correct electoral register and equal public media representation. Otherwise, why would anyone from the opposition participate, and I fail to see why elections should be held under such circumstances at all. If elections are not fair, then they should not be held at all.
Do you have enough time to prevent theft and create fair conditions, to open up the media?
There is time if there is political will. That is the main question: does the ruling regime have the political will to normalize and remedy the situation in the country? It seems that such will is absent because the very nature of the SNS and its members is violent and autocratic. And that will not change. That is why it seems that we are inevitably heading towards increased tensions in the political scene and society.
As an advisor to Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Slobodan Samardžić, you were a member of the negotiation process regarding Kosovo’s future status in 2007. Was it already known back then that the ultimate outcome would be the acceptance of Kosovo’s independence? Could anything have been different? And can anything be different now?
It was known that the desired ultimate outcome from the perspective of Western powers, was first to formalize the secession of our southern province, which happened through the unilateral declaration of independence on 17 February 2008, and then to pressure Serbia to accept the secession. Wolfgang Ischinger, a German diplomat who chaired the international mediation troika in that final phase of negotiations, had already put forward a model based on the agreement between the two Germanys from 1972. That model, which is based on the agreement between the two Germanys from 1972, by which they recognized each other and after which both became members of the UN, was, of course, rejected. Now, fifteen years later, there is someone in Serbia who will accept the Franco-German agreement. Because of such an act of high treason, Vučić will bear political, historical and criminal and legal responsibility. And could it have been otherwise? It could and can.
NIN / Mitar Mitrović