According to preliminary results of the runoff election, Boris Tadic of DOS – I mean, DS – is the new President of Serbia, having won 54% of the votes by 48% of the Serbian electorate.
Notes our resident Balkans observer Chris Deliso, the results were accompanied with much self-congratulatory rhetoric from the Empire and the Serbian political classes. Given that Tadic was supported by the entire political establishment, most media, and the Empire – which not so much rooted for him as demonized his opponent – the fact that his victory was hardly a landslide ought to be sobering. But the Powers That Love Democracy are too intoxicated with success to pay attention.
Just as Radical candidate Tomislav Nikolic was presented as Hitler Reborn, so is Tadic now painted as the Messiah of sorts; though his post is largely ceremonial, he is somehow expected to single-handedly save Serbia from the economic, social, political and identity crisis it’s in the midst of, and lead it swiftly into Empire’s eager embrace.
Won’t happen. In fact, the best Tadic can hope for right now is that the fickle neo-Keynesian statists of “G-17 Plus,” his erstwhile partners in the failed DOS alliance, don’t bring down the current government and force another expensive election.
In terms of actually changing the way things work in Serbia, neither Tadic nor Nikolic would have made a difference. It’s the system that is broken, to such an extent that it really doesn’t matter who the individual at its helm may be.
On the bright side, 52% of Serbian voters decided to pass on the state-worshipping voting ritual, whether by actually taking Fred Reed’s prescription or by figuring it out on their own. One should not argue that their silence means endorsement of whoever won; had they really wanted to back anyone, they would have bothered to vote. More likely they thought none of the candidates was worth the trouble – a truly admirable sentiment that shows there may still be hope for Serbians.
As Boris Tadic takes office, he’s set to deal with a shaky coalition government; a divided electorate; the burning issue of Kosovo; and the endless (and ever-increasing) Imperial demands: submit to the Hague Inquisitors, increase government debt (through IMF and World Bank loans), dismantle the military and sell off the Serbian economy to government-backed foreigners – in short, create the kind of dysfunctional welfare state that has destroyed much of the West already. Trouble is, Serbia is already in a more advanced stage of that disease, and the supposed “cure” is going to make things even worse; but what the Empire really wants is to make them less obvious.
Warns Deliso:
“it is arguable whether being elected president of Serbia right now is an enviable situation. The party could be over before it even begins.”