Opposition Leader: West Must Cease Supporting Corrupt Regimes in the Balkans

Savo Manojlovic (BETAPHOTO/Dragan Gojic)

The West must stop tolerating autocratic and corrupt regimes in the Balkans, Savo Manojlovic, the leader of the oppositional Get Going for Change movement, wrote in a letter to the Financial Times published online on Sept. 8.

According to Manojlovic, Serbia’s stabilocracy, supported by the West, “has produced neither genuine stability nor real democracy,” but rather corruption, a youth drain and the weakening of state institutions.

A scientific term increasingly used to describe Western Balkan regimes, ‘stabilocracy’ or ‘stabilitocracy’ refers to political systems where democracy is severely compromised and an authoritarian government is supported by the international community on grounds of preserving regional stability and because the demands of foreign powers are being met.

Manojlovic warns that, by indulging such authoritarian leaders, the West “has sent a dangerous message that autocracy can be tolerated if it delivers short-term geopolitical calm.”

“Democracy is not a luxury for Serbia,” Manojlovic concludes. “It is a precondition for security, prosperity and dignity. Yet it has been treated — both by local rulers and external actors — as expendable, something that can be sacrificed for the sake of “stability.”