Election Day

Today is the presidential elections. Last night I went for a coffee with my friend J. We then went back to her apartment to hang out, do my laundry, and watch some TV on DVD. I ended up staying the night and we ended up talking until (and through) the wee hours of the morning. We talked about our experiences as Americans living in Serbia, J's tale of her first Serbian police encounter (which were not reassuring), and the today's presidential elections.

J had watched a segment on the international yesterday talking about the importance of these elections in regards to Serbia's future. I had read articles saying the same thing. Basically, the outcome from today's election is to show whether or not Serbia is ready to move forward and join the European community. Although there are several different candidates running for president, there are two main candidates (two candidates who are considered to have an actual chance of winning). The two main candidates, Boris Tadic (the current president) and Tomislav Nikolic have diverging opinions on what Serbia's relationship with the European Union should look like. Tadic campaign platform is a "Strong and Stable Serbia" advocating for Serbia to move towards membership in the European Union. Nikolic is seen to be very anti-Western and advocates for stronger ties to Russia. Both are against Kosovo independence, but Nikolic's rhetoric is much stronger in regards to actions Serbia would take if Kosovo became independent (and was recognized by the U.S. and European countries).

The most recent information I have been able to find on the internet shows Nikolic leading the polls with less than 20% of the votes counted. The official results will be announced by Thursday. According to the polls, Nikolic is supposed to "win" this round of the elections. Of course, the other thing to be mentioned is that a second election (a run-off between the top two candidates) will be held on February 3rd since Serbian law requires the winner to have at least 50% of the vote to be declared president. I can only hope that the less nationalist candidate, Tadic, will win the second round by pulling a greater majority of the voters who voted for other candidates in the first round.

J and I talked about what it would mean for the future of Serbia if the more nationalist candidate (both of leading candiates easily fall into the category of nationalist), Nikolic, were to win. We selfishly wondered if it would have any effects on our lives as Americans living here. Would anti-Western sentiment increase? But, I think we both knew that the more important questions lied in how it would effect the future of Serbia and Serbians. Although, Tadic is not advocating a true break with the past or a real confrontation of the past, I guess it seems more likely that these things are more likely to occur under someone who is less hostile towards them. Confronting the past and transitional justice (they go hand in hand) are two of the biggest components of WiB's work. It would be nice if some sort of shift occurred here creating a better reception to these concepts (and WiB's work) among citizens here. I don't think it would magically occur by Tadic being elected since he is the current president. His re-election would be more of a continuation of the status quo, but at least this status quo seems to be more open to these ideas than the alternative candidate. Unfortunately, the candidate who seems to be the most likely to bring this systemic shift in values is not a frontrunner and will not win (he is also the candiate who best matches my, and WiB's, values and ideals).

J and I also discussed why the nationalist candidates are popular. Most of J's Serbian friends are very liberal and do not acurately reflect the whole of Serbian society. The same is very true of most of my friends (which are mainly through WiB). She talked about how it seemed to her that people are age (in their 20s) want to join the EU and Western society; she then admitted to making these comments on the basis of her interactions with her friends. We discussed we both lived insular lives in some ways in regards to the "true Serbia": we both interact with Serbians who are do not have the same political ideologies and values as the majority of Serbians. I shared with her the conversation I had with with my landlady, D, following the street action on December 10th. I found it very insightful.

When I was talking to D about the huge turnout of fascist/neonazis to demonstrate against our street action, I mentioned that even though Rachel had forewarned me I was still a bit surprised at how young they were. Somehow it took actually seeing them to get out of my mind the image of a middle aged man as the typical fascist, neo-nazi. However, the majority of the men who showed up were around my age (in their 20s). I mentioned that to me it didn't make sense since I had always thought that after a war the next generation is very set on rebuilding the nation, and breaking with the past. D said that to her it makes perfect sense that they are younger. She said that most of them had never been outside of Serbia and knew nothing but Serbia. She is in her late 30s/early 40s. Therefore, she mentioned how she had gotten the benefit of traveling since she grew up under Tito when Yugoslavia was a buffer between the East and the West and citizens got the benefit of traveling to wherever. She talked about how when this generation was growing up not only were they subjected to the massive propaganda and nationalist media campaigns, but they also weren't able to travel outside of the country due to the sanctions imposed upon Serbians. There were alot of problems getting visas, and most people could not even entertain the idea of being able to afford to travel due to the economic recession. She talked about how as a result this created a very insulated society/generation. Resulting in a bunch of young men belonging to nationalist, neo-nazi groups and coming to demonstrate against our street action.

I've attached some links to various articles about the candidates, the elections, and the results if you want to look them up. I noticed that there doesn't seem to be much coverage on the elections in the US media (or at least the media I've encountered via the internet).

http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7452/ -- This one talks about preliminary results and the high turnout at the polls.
http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7450/ -- This one gives a runddown of the various candidates and some basic information on them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7198481.stm -- This one also talks about preliminary results of today's election. It talks a bit more about the duties of the Serbian president and the importance of Kosovo in today's election.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7196896.stm -- This offers really good basic information on the different election issues and the election process.



Those are my ramblings of the night.