Political activist Bardhyl Mahmuti has reacted to Aleksandar Vučić’s defeat in Serbia’s parliamentary elections, arguing that a change of power does not necessarily mean the country has become more democratic.
“The electoral defeat of the Goebbels of the Balkans does not mean the denazification of Serbia,” Mahmuti wrote in a post.
He stressed that the parliamentary elections had defeated what he described as the “Serbian Joint Criminal Enterprise of Aleksandar Vučić, Ivica Dačić, Aleksandar Vulin, Milan Radoičić and their associates.”
However, Mahmuti warned that Vučić’s loss of power should not automatically be interpreted as a shift in Serbia’s political and social attitudes.
“Yet we must not forget that, beyond speculation about Aleksandar Vučić’s paternity, ‘Albanians’ were synonymous with evil in the rhetoric of the leaders of the two-year protest movement and the protesters in Serbia. That is why the slogan ‘ACO SIPTARE’ was used as the harshest insult directed at Aleksandar Vučić the Goebbels of the Balkans,” he wrote.
According to Mahmuti, assessing a country’s democratization requires looking beyond whether institutional leadership changes hands in accordance with formal procedures. The real measure is the extent to which democratic values are put into practice.
He argued that Serbia’s approach to the crime of genocide in Kosovo, the opening of archives, establishing the fate of people forcibly disappeared during the last war, and recognizing the reality of Kosovo’s independence will be key criteria in determining whether the October 25 elections mark the beginning of a new chapter in Serbia’s relations with other Balkan states.
