Trifunovic: Serbia Must Not Be a Country of Fear

Sergej Trifunovic (Betaphoto/Milos Miskov)

Movement of Free Citizens leader Sergej Trifunovic has said that there is no freedom where there is fear, there are no citizens where there is no dignity and that there is no movement where people avoid to do something they can.

“What I least want is for my Serbia to be a country of fear. Primarily, personal fear should have been overcome. For fear, that illusion, and fear is always an illusion, to disappear, it was necessary, as writer Milorad Pavic has said: ‘Ride to meet fear,’” Trifunovic has written in an editorial on the occasion of one year as the movement’s leader, published in the Jan. 28 issue of Belgrade daily Danas.

Noting that he was thinking of not running for the post of movement leader, he described assuming the movement’s leadership, as many other moves in his life, was “a dive into the deep.” According to him, “after 29 of the same evil, the drowning of my dear mother Serbia in quicksand, with the same people, Vucic and Dacic, who are with their partners in this crime laughing in our face,” it seemed to him that any excuse would be pathetic.

“And we know what we want: to build a beautiful, smiling and happy Serbia, which is not fled by young people. Where there is room and job for all. A Serbia which is proud also of its differences and its diversities. A Serbia which smiles. A Serbia free of hate. A Serbia with educated and witty people, beautiful and with smiling faces,” Trifunovic stressed.

He further wrote: “In a country, where the impudent people who have seized power have been undermining the institutions, which are the pillars of a state, professionalism is the pillar of institutions.”  

“All of you lawyers and legal experts, with or without passed bar exams, economists, political scientists, traffic policemen and other police officers, soldiers, doctors, art historians, philosophers, philologists, popcorn sellers, drivers, painters, writers, workers, cameramen, miners, shop assistants, organizers, foundrymen, managers, actors, all of you professionals are necessary,” Trifunovic said, adding that his movement’s doors were ever open to all of them.