Empire’s Allies in Serbia Falter
by Nebojsa Malic
Famous anarchist Emma Goldman once said, “If voting changed anything, they would make it illegal.” Following last weekend’s presidential elections in Serbia, the party of the incumbent Boris Tadic must be wishing they had made voting illegal. It appears that “democratic moderate reformers” – epithets Western press routinely uses when describing Tadic and his followers – have badly overestimated their popularity. Looking at the mainstream media in Serbia – either lavishly sponsored or owned outright by Western corporations, governments and NGOs – it is not hard to see how they may have acquired this misguided perception.
It is unlikely that the outcome of the February 3 runoff vote could actually change http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2901 policy towards Serbia; Washington and Brussels remain committed to carving out the Albanian-occupied and UN/NATO-administered Kosovo. Yet, lacking political, legal and even military means to impose its will, the Empire needs Serbia’s acquiescence, even if it’s tortured and threadbare. It has been openly speculated in the mainstream Western press that Tadic would provide such acquiescence. This is the real reason why Washington and the European capitals watch Serbia with bated breath; a victory by Nikolic would derail their already precarious project.The real shock in the aftermath of Sunday’s vote was not Nikolic’s lead; a similar situation, in which the Radicals would poll well in the first round but lose the runoff, has happened before. There were, however, two surprises that upset both the campaign managers and the pollsters and analysts close to the establishment. First of all, the turnout in the election was substantially greater than expected. Recent parliamentary elections and the constitutional referendum barely rose above the necessary census; this time, over 60% of the voters took to the polls.
http://antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=12255