Serbia’s writer: I see embryo of critical public in anti-government protests

He added he “sees an embryo of the critical public in the ongoing anti-government protests, sceptical toward both the regime and opposition. That has not been the case so far.”

“We can hear people saying ‘we won over fear’ during these protests. I think that (Serbia’s President Aleksandar) Vucic can not scare anyone who already doesn’t feel dread. We are the society with deeply embedded anxiety, “ Basara said, adding that was the reason for so much violence from time to time.

He said Serbia never had an authentic opposition which could change the system, adding it might have happened during the rule of Zoran Djindjic, first democratic Prime Minister of Serbia, but he was assassinated in 2003, less than two years into the mandate.

Today’s opposition, Basara says, looks ridiculous because “it doesn’t have 5,000 members altogether.”

Asked why the Serbs always needed “the leader”, Basara attributed that to some unrealistic expectation that a single man could solve all the problems.

“A single man, even if he were the Superman, cannot solve a problem shared by millions of people. That is expected here. And then the state becomes an employment agency, social institution, bogeyman, Disneyland. There are a lot of state’s shapes, but not the one it should have. It should be like a post office – you take a letter there, and they take it where it should be taken,“ Basara said.