Expert on Balkans: Elections Path Toward Normality, Democracy for Serbia

Local Elections in Serbia, June 2 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Vedran Dzihic, an expert on the Balkans, has said that Serbia is essentially in a state of emergency and that President Aleksandar Vucic could resort to even more authoritarian means of rule, criticizing the European Union for sacrificing European values in the name of "stabilitocracy" in Serbia.

In an interview with ZDF, channel two of Germany's public service television broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, Dzihic said the regime in Serbia used brutal force against protesters assisted by its thug squads and special police units.

In pro-regime media outlets, there is an atmosphere of literally calling for violence, of threats and defamation, said Dzihic, a former researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs and a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), adding that the bottom line was that the regime in Serbia was consciously turning the state's monopoly on force into a monopoly on the distribution of force.

Polls clearly show that the government is losing trust at an accelerated rate, Dzihic said, adding that the people were angry and indignant because the police were beating up the country's youth. Meanwhile, the EU is betting on the stabilitocracy card, placing stability above democracy.