Famous Playwright: Serbia’s Ruling Party Akin to Military Formation, Opposition Should Unite Behind a Single Leader

Dusan Kovacevic

According to academician and playwright Dusan Kovacevic, Serbia’s political scene has remained virtually unchanged for more than a decade, with “a single party holding power and functioning like a military formation.”

The opposition, he added, should unite behind a single leader.

“The [ruling] party is led by a general who, like in the military, barks ‘attention’ and ‘at ease,’ the two basic orders. His subordinates must adhere to the order without comment or hesitation. And this has been honed to near perfection,” Kovacevic told the latest edition of the NIN weekly.

“Challenging this well-organized party,” he went on to say, “are people from about ten, fifteen associations and parties, reminiscent of a high school class that insults the teacher and is flunked in punishment.”

“What I’m trying to say [is that] in the early 1990s, there were also about a dozen influential parties, which was eventually whittled down to two most powerful: the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia. And to two men: Zoran Djindjic and Vojislav Kostunica. And when it was time for someone to go up against Milosevic, it was decided that would be Kostunica. Zoran [Djindjic] was besmirched. Unfairly and falsely, but besmirched nevertheless. So the people have always wanted a single powerful leader, from Karadjordje to Vucic,” Kovacevic concluded, referencing Djordje ‘Karadjordje’ Petrovic, the leader of the first Serbian uprising against the Turks, in 1804.