Tošo Borković

Whatever Works

In the light of the recent unsettling events that took place on the streets of Belgrade (the cancellation of Belgrade pride parade and the murder of a French football supporter) one cannot but admire the tremendous skill of dodging any kind of political damage and bad publicity that Serbian politicians have exercised. The way their non-corporeal, political and corporeal, human bodies wormed their way around every moral and political trap that was laid before them during these incidents is something to be respected.

Unsettling events

Belgrade LGBT pride parade was canceled due to high security risks and the inability of Serbian police forces to guarantee safety of all the participants and bystanders. A number (all of them) of ultra - nationalist, traditionalist, fascist and religious (as well as some of the highest ranking officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church) groups threatened to attack members of the parade in order to stop the shameful exhibition of sexual deviancy and perversity. The parade was canceled one day before it was supposed to take place.
The murder of a French young man, Brice Taton, took place shortly after. One group of football supporters intercepted the other in downtown Belgrade. The man was beaten up with crowbars, and several days later he died in the hospital due to the severe trauma to his head and heart.

Tergiversation

Serbian politician's reactions ranged from true shock and condemnation through passive noninterference to silent approval. But what they all had in common was the shifting of blame and avoidance of any kind of responsibility for the things that are happening in the country they lead. It is remarkable how Serbian politicians can avoid being blamed for anything. To be a politician here, means to master a special kind of speech. The kind that would allow you to talk for hours on end but to say virtually nothing. That way, if anything goes wrong, you are not the one who gets to be blamed. And things go wrong more often than not. Because the ability (and often lack of will) of the average politician here to predict the unfolding of the events is limited to "...i'm sure that sun will rise tomorrow". The only "big picture" they know of is measured in inches and it represents the size of their television sets. In such climate it is dangerous to be responsible.
In these instances, they spent huge amounts of energy to differentiate themselves from the problem, instead of solving it. And they didn't solve it. They just managed to show to the people that they do not "share the values that homosexual people do, but they believe that any person can exercise its right to free speech and sexual orientation". But they didn't do anything to enable a chance for those peoples to do that. So the extremists have won. They have beaten the government and the parade is canceled. But the politicians didn't even flinch. Like nothing has happened.
One other reason for such a behavior is the importance of the ideals that these extremist groups represent and the extent to which they are rooted in peoples minds. Peoples that are registered voters. Direct attack on these groups results in a proportional loss of a significant number of votes. That is why they have operated without any problems for nearly two decades. Again, politicians deal with the situation as it arises, and its always in the way that would benefit their current image.
Today, Serbia really is traveling without moving.