The saying is, “fool me once – shame on you; fool me twice – shame on me.” Well, apparently not for Serbia. By a razor-thin margin Serbs reelected President Boris Tadic.
The first time around, during Parliamentary elections, Europe promised fast-paced integration and lucrative deals if Serbs did not vote for the Radical Party. Brussels’ promises and the Serbs’ gullibility notwithstanding, Kosovo is weeks, if not days, away from independence. This time around, Brussels promised another lucrative package, styled as “like no other deal ever made by the EU with any country,” if, only if, Boris Tadic was reelected. And the Serbs fell for it again. They fell for Brussels’ promises and for Tadic’s warnings of isolationism should the Radicals come to power
Of course, Tadic’s reelection means very little in reality. The President is more of a ceremonial figure and real power rests with the coalition government led by Vojislav Kostunica. Thaci will declare independence and Brussels and Washington will recognize it, despite Belgrade’s opposition, Moscow’s warnings, and now the voice of some American foreign policy elite. The “lucrative” deal offered to the Serbs as compensation for the amputation of 15% of their territory will not go through over the opposition of the Netherlands and Belgium.
The Serbs will be fooled a third time. On Sunday they had an opportunity to show that they’ve had enough of being treated like the scum of Europe. And they blew it.
Update (19:44 EST): EU is “ready” to send their [illegal] mission to Kosovo. The decision was agreed before the election but made public only today, the BBC reports. I rest my case.
Indeed. Nikolic correctly pointed out that it was “fear” that turned the election. Also credited could be the media monopoly that Tadic enjoyed as well as the votes of hundreds of thousands whose ultimate goal is to flee Serbia to move to Ireland and Britain as their Polish and Baltic counterparts are doing. Thus, they vote to flee their “sinking ship”; some positive vision Tadic offers…
At any rate this was a perfect opportunity to take a stand against the Empire without leading to policies that they fear would be punished. It would seem that they fear doing even that… as I said elsewhere, they are making a statement of being a broken and defeated people.