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Bojan Klačar, executive director of CESID, told Danas about the current qualification of the president of Serbia and the SNS, that is, the opposition.
To be honest, we still don’t know how the Serbian president’s visit to the United States affected his rating in the electorate, because that investigation has yet to be done.
Photo: FoNet / Nenad Djordjevic– Too short a period has passed. For now, it does not seem that these consequences should be radical, perhaps a stagnation in the short term or the appearance of some negative feelings, but in the medium term we should expect that nothing will change significantly. There are three reasons: 1) citizens were prepared for a worst-case scenario so they see this as a success, 2) Vucic has loyal voters with whom he communicates regularly with carefully prepared messages, and 3) the opposition is weak and indiscriminate in the criticism for imposing a negative campaign – Bojan Klačar, Executive Director of CESID, evaluated in an interview for Danas.
How do you assess, in the same sense, the impact of the signing of the agreement in Washington, that is, everything that followed that signing, including President Vučić’s ignorance of what exactly he is signing? Is that clear and obvious to SNS voters?
– Not only this agreement, but the entire process of negotiations with Pristina remains under a veil of secrecy, few details are available and the details are understandable only to the informed public.
There is a lack of “deposition” of political accounts in parliament, and this bad practice has been going on for months. For SNS voters, but also for everyone else, numerous responses are certainly lacking because the deal is atypical, with many areas it touches on, some of which do not directly concern the crossing of Serbia and Kosovo.
The media interpretation of this agreement will also affect the understanding of what was signed, because the public received all the information through interpretive media filters, and they are biased in various ways.
It is understandable that some things should remain secret so that the negotiating position does not weaken, but it seems reasonable that the state leadership is more open about the platform with which it operates, and ideally that the parliament takes a position on the negotiating position.
In your opinion, did the so-called pro-regime media manage to cover up these gaffes from the President of Serbia?
– The media is deeply divided in Serbia, sometimes even more than the political actors themselves.
Almost the position of each medium can be recognized in advance. All the media remained consistent with their positions: the media close to the authorities uncritically promoted what was done, framing the message that it was a great success in extremely difficult circumstances and consequently ignoring all the gaffes and shortcomings, while critical media criticized the gaffes and shortcomings of the deal, indiscriminately. and without extracting certain good things.
The truth, as is often the case, is somewhere in between. As the media of the closest authorities are much more and more influential, it is to be expected that they have somewhat amortized the possible negative effects of the signed agreement.
What are your assessments regarding the rating of the opposition, in the first place, the one that boycotted the elections – Djilas, Jeremic, Obradovic, Let’s not drown Belgrade ”?
– Essentially, nothing has drastically changed since the election, so the opposition’s ratings have remained unchanged. And in general, they are not good because all parties are below five percent of support (individually), which is a very bad starting position for 2022.
The opposition also seems to be in a kind of additionally passive position, without energy, in which neither the direction nor the tactic it will use is realized.
Some parties are more active and work on infrastructure, like the National Assembly, which is good, some will be activated (Dveri), while movements and civic initiatives are still the only organizations that managed to get some victories (hydroelectric plants, Kosutnjak … ). For now, there is still no reaction from the civil parties, which I think will try to make themselves bigger and clearer for the voters on some kind of pro-European platform.
The opposition as a whole will try to reorganize itself for other reasons, abandoning many principles of the boycott campaign and putting emphasis on the Belgrade elections. It is to be hoped that through them they will try to achieve the first victory or the first serious articulation of the energy of the opposition.
What are your assessments of the formation of the new Serbian government? How, as far as qualification is concerned, are the traditional partners of the SNS, ie Prime Minister Ana Brnabić?
– It is to be expected that Ana Brnabić will remain in the post of Prime Minister, as it is certain that there will be numerous personnel changes at the head of the ministries.
In the long run, political life without opposition in parliament is not in favor of the SNS, so the election of new ministers will try to include people with the least burden of the past and willing to dialogue with the political minority, which seems necessary before the next elections.
The coalition government and not the concentration government remains a more realistic scenario, which means the cooperation of the SNS with the SPS, SDPS and SVM, above all, because this coalition offers a great space both for the division of responsibilities and for legitimacy of the decisions to be made.
The ratings of all the smaller SNS partners are stable because nothing has changed dramatically in recent weeks, and the position of the SPS is weaker compared to the previous term.
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