Election in Serbia: The Repeat Test of Patriotism for Little Slobo

source: blic.rs

To fully comprehend the significance of the notorious “suitcase” deal following Serbia’s 2008 parliamentary elections, one had to wait to May 6, 2012. The deal, to remind the forgetful, involved Ivica Dačić, the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, and an unknown donor of the rumored $10 million needed for Dačić to abandon the set post-electoral coalition with the Serbian Radical Party and Vojislav Koštunica's Democratic Party of Serbia. The patriotic coalition of enough parliamentary strength to form the new cabinet appeared to be a done deal, but a half way through the collective sigh of the patriotic relief and amidst Tomislav Nikolić's warming the chair of the head of the National Assembly, Dačić reneged, delivering the fatal blow to the Serbian Radical Party and the parliamentary majority to Boris Tadić's For European Serbia coalition. Dačić's seven percent were enough to swing the pendulum.

Fast forward to Sunday, May 6, 2012. Saint George's day. The second most celebrated patron saint in the Serbian Orthodox religion and, apparently, the one Ivica Dačić should start worshipping. The Socialists, founded by Slobodan Milošević, spared by Koštunica and risen from the dead by Dačić, won 16 percent of the votes Serbia gives to its trusted political options. In the already historical press conference Sunday evening, Dačić told his supporters: ''We may not know who the next president of Serbia will be, but we do know who the next prime minister will be.'' In other words, we don't know if Tadić or Nikolić will be in power come May 21, but we know that both will have to bargain which Dačić.

One has to give Dačić's political talents credit. On October 6, 2000, we all thought the Socialist would die with their founder. Only eight years later, they were back in power, and only 12 years later, they are poised to lead the government. That is the leading story of the Serbian election, 2012 edition. True, the rampant electoral theft and the demise of the Radicals were two other significant outcomes of Serbia's immature, but promising democratic exercise (promising in the sense of the true, deviant Western democracy) but Dačić and the Socialist stole the day. The survival, the ''suitcase'' deal, the four years of insignifance in the Mirko Cvetković cabinet all were just a run-up to this: the pariah party put itself in a position to determine the future of the country in yet another key historical moment for Serbia and, more importantly, Serbdom.

source: politika.rs

I don't think it is necessary to remind the reader of the dire straits Serbdom in Serbia is in. No determined national borders (Kosovo), feeble internal stability (Vojvodina), virtually no economic development or prospects, the subordinate position towards the North Atlantic community hellbent on destroying Serbia and especially Serbdom, the catastrophic state of the education system, no independent military to speak of... Should I keep going? It is clear the ruling clique – which Dačić participated in – brought the country to this low point and whoever thinks it is not inclined to continue on this ''scorched earth'' path is delusional. Yes, Dačić played along, or was led along, trying to stick around, elbowing his way into more of the feeble, marginal power, rolling with the punches and throwing a dart of insolence here and there.  As a Minister of Interior Affairs, he was famously “uninformed” of the April arrests of the youths that allegedly burned the US Embassy in 2008. That was in the previous mandate. Dačić is coming into this round of bartering for power way stronger than in 2008. In 2008, he headed a marginal party whose support could only be vied for in the fractured parliamentary mash pit of democracy that is Serbia. In 2012, he heads the third largest party in Serbia where the two leading parties are almost irreconcilably opposed to another. (In Serbia, reconciliations can be quick and easy, as Dačić showed in 2008.) We know he will ask for the prime minister’s seat, he said so. When he becomes the prime minister, what can Serbia expect from this new, more powerful version of the Little Slobo?

Dačić is a strange animal. How to judge him is the question. Unscrupulous? Definitely. Conniving? A necessary quality in any serious politician. A leader? To his party, most definitely. A patriot? Here we have to hit the brakes. Dačić, by signing the Memorandum of Reconciliation with the Democratic Party, waived the right to call himself a patriotic leader. My stand on who should be considered a patriot may be irrelevant, but someone who reneges on a deal with options generally considered patriotic, even nationalist, to get in cahoots with foreign mercenaries who strictly abide by instructions from Western ambassadors, can hardly be seen as anything different from such mercenaries. And if you believe the “suitcase” rumor, the picture gets clearer.

source: vesti-online.com

I don’t know if this is the case of “hope dies last” or a reasonable prospect, but despite all the unpatriotic manifestations I want to believe that Dačić is a type who also has an ideological agenda and one that is nearer to the patriotic end of spectrum than to that what Boris Tadic would be willing to live with. To be clear, I believe Dačić was nearer to Nikolić and Koštunica in 2008 as well. However, suitcase or not, Dačić had to be aware of the fact that he would be a junior partner in either combination. The question was in which combination he would be able to stand out more in the eyes of the potential voters. In the patriotic coalition with Nikolić and Koštunica, he couldn’t hope to distinguish his party politics on the national level even if the Western embassies had allowed this Radical-led cabinet to spread its wings. With Tadic, he could freely and without consequences exercise bursts of hollow patriotism and stand out in the sea of globalist sycophants crowding the high echelons of Serbian politics. In other words, with the patriotic coalition, he could only be one of the patriots. Observed next to and against the likes of Tadic, Cvetković, or Mlađan Dinkić, he stood out to many of his potential voters as a staunch patriot. Of course, this doesn’t mean I underestimate the power of the suitcase. He decided to go Tadic’s way and, in four years, he doubled his tally of votes. Not a bad calculation on his part. Horrible for Serbia, though.

On the crossroads yet again, Serbia cannot afford another four year term of a Western mercenary government. The full delivery of not only Kosovo, but Vojvodina as well, seems to be in the cards. The cold hallways of Nemanjina 11 haven’t been less hospitable to ideas friendly to Serbdom since 1990. Dačić holds the keys to a different future or at least to a prolonged hope. The Radicals, a true opposition to the globalist onslaught against Serbia, are all but done, at least for some time. Both Dačić and Nikolić played a role in pushing Vojislav Šešelj’s party down the cliff and they have an obligation to find a way to pull Serbia back up or at least stop the downward spiral. With the run-off looming and two weeks of merciless bargaining ahead of us, the game is still on. True patriots know the bad option for Serbia. Let a better one stand up.