Speaking to the Italian daily La Repubblica on September 6, eastCOM Consulting founder and Serbian Monitor editor-in-chief Biagio Carrano argued that the political meaning of the State funeral of Ratko Mladić as it offers President Aleksandar Vučić a political opening ahead of October’s elections.
“A golden opportunity” ahead of October
Asked about the political reading of the funeral, Carrano told the paper that the event is a golden opportunity for the Serbian president. Riding nationalism ahead of the October elections, he argued, can win Vučić back the support of the conservative part of the electorate, which looks back at the past with nostalgia while at the same time fearing a return to the instability of the 1990s.
The voters in question, he said, are the over-50s “who suffered through the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and believe an authoritarian government is better able to prevent political instability”. Some of them, he noted, did stand alongside the young people challenging the government during last year’s student movement — but under nationalist flags.
To secure those votes, Carrano argued, Vučić is prepared to put relations with the European Union on hold, resuming negotiations with Brussels only after the elections, once his position has been strengthened.
A divided society: the commemoration and the Pride march
On the Belgrade day that saw both the military commemoration for Mladić and the Pride march, Carrano described “a day of overlaps that shows just how complex and divided Serbian society is”: one part ultra-religious and drawn to the patriotic-nationalist message, another secular and attentive to civil rights and economic development.
The same contradiction, he said, runs through government policy, which tries to combine foreign investment with nationalism — in his words, “like mixing oil and water, because economic progress brings an opening towards the world”, while the country to be reckoned with remains a deeply chauvinist one.
“Muddling through” on the economy
Asked how that balance is maintained, Carrano’s answer was: by muddling through. Serbia has faced a decline in investment from EU countries, he said, to the point of signing a €940 million agreement with China, and it has not introduced sanctions against Russia. Today it serves as a hub for Arab, Asian and African investors, and has recorded GDP growth of 3.8%.
His conclusion: “It is certainly not the economy that is pushing it towards the EU.”
Read also
- Here is how media from the region report on the funeral of Ratko Mladić
- Biševac on honors for Mladić: The most shameful days in the recent history of Serbia
The full interview was published by [TESTATA] on [DATA].