FLASH
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Former Chancellor Angela Merkel in particular praised and promoted his role as a "stabilocrat", as critics mock: as a strongman who prevents the biggest geopolitical chaos in the Balkans, gives foreign partners a pleasant investment climate and in return is only "partially" capable of creating a "free" political system...
Judging by what Serbia's rulers have been saying recently, one might get the impression that the country is at war, or at least under imminent threat of war.
According to Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, a group is working towards the "destabilization" of the country.
Even according to President Aleksandar Vučić, an uprising orchestrated by someone outside the country with the aim of starting a "color revolution" is happening in Serbia.
This is an "attempt to forcibly take over the state institutions of the Republic of Serbia, according to Vučić
Who saved the country from the worst in this difficult hour, as it often happens: the Russian secret service, which, according to Prime Minister Brnabić, warned her government in time about "what was being prepared in Belgrade".
President Vucic, once propaganda minister under alleged war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, upped the ante last week and insulted a group of European parliamentarians who don't want to let his regime get away with alleged election rigging as easily as they are "more evils that Serbia hates".
A country constantly threatened by enemies, but fortunately against which we stand firmly united: such descriptions are part of the standard repertoire of autocrats and populists.
Now it can be assumed that under no circumstances will you associate with such enemies - who, according to official reports, are mainly located in the West. But the protectionist power does not go that far: according to his assurances, Vucic is still trying to join the EU - which also follows logic.
The countries of the Union, especially Germany, are among the most important trading partners of Serbia. German companies are helping fund Vučić's propaganda machine by placing ads in Serbian pro-government media. And for years, the president has been able to rest assured that key EU figures won't be too hard on him while he rips his country's democracy to shreds.
The 'guilty' Angela Merkel
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel in particular praised and promoted his role as a "stabilocrat", as critics mock: as a strongman who prevents the biggest geopolitical chaos in the Balkans, gives foreign partners a pleasant investment climate and in return it is only "partially" capable of creating a "free" political system (according to the classification of the organization Freedom House as of 2019).
The EU Commission and the US government continue to comment very carefully on the documented electoral manipulations.
Their means of exerting pressure are nevertheless limited: Vučić's ruling Progress Party, SNS, now counts more than one in ten citizens of the country among its members. Over the years it has grown into a powerful clientelistic apparatus that distributes public sector jobs and directs state resources into election campaigns and propaganda mills.
You cannot change such a system overnight.
There are many indications that the country will maintain its stability for a long time. The price is paid by those Serbs who tirelessly take to the streets in their thousands for true democracy - even if their hope for support from the EU has faded over the years./ Adapted from Süddeutsche Zeitung
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