Why vote on governments we don't want

When I was Serbia and Montenegro's ambassador to Vienna, Vuk Draskovic, at the time foreign minister told me an annex for his glorious “Opositorism” as Slobodan Milosevic's main opponent.

We're in the early 1990s. During the election campaign in one of the rural areas of eastern Serbia, Draskovic was holding a meeting with farmers, who left him speechless with the logic and argument given why they would not vote for his party. We'll vote you when you get to power!”, they told them.

A few years ago, I held meetings with citizens as NATO national co-ordinator in Montenegro. Nothing impressed me more than the chronic lack of optimism I noticed. Nobody believed it, nor wanted the government, nor the ruling party, but were even more disappointed and had less respect for other political actors.

How does this love-hate relationship work? What makes the Balkans want people in power? Fear or uncertainty of change or both?

The truth is, once they get to power, Balkan political elites tend to stay there eternally. This is a political phenomenon that has not been invented in the Balkans, does not bear our seal, but in the Balkans it is the most pronounced.

The problem is profound and its part is all political actors throughout the region, both those who are in power today and others who are in opposition.

The scenario of the outcome of local elections in Belgrade, which Vucic called “the festival of democracy”, could be repeated soon in the Presidential elections in Montenegro. The Democratic Party of Socialists seems consumed after two decades in power, but the opposition still seems unable to find a success formula and the number of candidates from its ranks is growing.

Political landscapes today for the entire region are grey. The grey is perfect and appropriate to describe what is happening politically in the region, leaving behind any existing problems, such as corruption or lack of democracy.

Kosovo seems to have a problem with its past and with the concept of justice. Croatia also has the same problem, and this was shown by the Council of Autocratic Regimes, which proposed some legal amendments that would allow “exclusive” World War II veterans to use the fascist Usasive slogan “Za Dom Spreni” (Pete to Homeland! )

Serbia has the biggest problem with its past, especially with the protagonist role it played in the conflicts of the 1990s. Not long ago, the Serbian Defence Minister said Belgrade should seek the partition of Kosovo to ensure EU membership. Accounts are clear; we talk about partitioning Kosovo, but we also mean Republika Srpska.

Bosnia has a problem with the present. Under pressure from Erdogan, the city of Sarajevo withdrew its decision to honour Nobelist Orhan Pamuk, writer and activist known for his anti-Erdogan stances. Pamuk was worthy of a Nobel Prize, but not the city of Sarajevo. The most disturbing signals are produced by the Bosnian Serb Republic. The main entity of Serbs bought 1700 military weapons, to be added another 2,500 shortly. Why? To defend yourself? From whom?

All countries are trying to climb the mountain called “democratic reform and rule of law”, in hopes that they will not roll back. However, the only positive signal arrives from Macedonia and its new government, which is trying to restore the country to the tracks leading to Brussels.

What are the options? Unfortunately, except for some voices of civil society and some politicians depreciated by voters, opposition in the region does not look better than those in power, if not worse. Disorganized, disorganized, without vision and directed by self-promising leaders, the fate of this opposition is failure.

Under such conditions, we should not be surprised why most Balkans - those who do not simply seek new faces in politics - stay at home and do not vote. There are millions of them, young, educated, but disappointed and disappointed, who dream of living a normal life, but unfortunately away from their country. These are the undiscovered potential of Balkan societies, but that political actors cannot achieve, because they are not the typical “ ” and neither are militants.

At this moment, no political forces in the region seem able to attract the attention and interest of this part of society, which would follow the transformation, so when the year of “membership comes, if it ever comes... they will be no longer in the Balkans, but living anywhere, in a better place.

/Autori Vesko Garcevic, former Montenegrin ambassador to NATO and O The SEU is a professor at Frederick S. Form School of Global Studies, Boston University.

/Taked by BIRN