In a discussion on the PIKË podcast, Nenad Čanak, founder of the Social Democratic League of Vojvodina, stated that Serbia became an independent state thanks to Montenegro’s independence and its leader Milo Đukanović.
According to Čanak, Serbia could not be considered a fully independent and functional state for most of the 20th century. He argued that, in reality, Serbia was only a state for about 14 years during that period, while the rest of the time it was part of other states, including Yugoslavia.
In a conversation with publicist Veton Surroi, Čanak explained that after Montenegro’s declaration of independence, Serbia gained the opportunity to declare its own independence — although this occurred only after a long and complicated political process. He emphasized that one of the main reasons behind this shift was the fact that Vojislav Koštunica, then-President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, interpreted Montenegro’s independence as the loss of a “small piece of Yugoslav territory”, treating it more as a formal separation than a moment of complete breakup.
Furthermore, Čanak reflected on the nature of the Serbian state, calling it a “light-speed treadmill” — suggesting that despite different impressions and political dramas, Serbia has remained stagnant without sustainable development for a long time. He underlined, citing Vesna Pešić, that Serbia has the tendency to remain trapped in a repetitive cycle without transitioning into genuine change.
In another part of the discussion, Čanak stressed that throughout the 20th century, Serbia had projected the idea of a “Greater Serbia”, with nationalist ideologies being strongly expressed through various state-building projects.
