Pieces of the puzzle of Serbian student protests, which are acquiring the character of a full-scale social rebellion, are finally falling into place. The current commotion started when on 1 November 2024, a concrete canopy at the recently remodelled railway station building in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed, crushing seventeen people and killing fifteen. Not long before, the entire building, including the canopy, was reconstructed by negligent and incompetent “contractors” selected by the ruling authorities. The “reconstruction” job was finally completed with huge budget overruns. The Serbian public intuited immediately that the ultimate cause of the tragedy must…
Author: Administrator
We highly recommend this interview which George Szamuely conducted with Serbian political analyst Dragana Trifković. It sheds light on the principal issues behind the student and citizen revolt triggered by the corruption and negligence that led to the death of fifteen innocent people in the concrete canopy collapse at the railway station in the city of Novi Sad. George Szamuely asks the right questions and Mrs. Trifković puts in perspective citizen outrage that for the last three months has been shaking to its foundations of the neo-colonial political system in Serbia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnlMUN1fjJY
The political and social crisis convulsing Serbia has deepened since we last referred to this topic (and here). Civil unrest driven by university and high school students is gaining momentum and is now an everyday reality in cities and towns throughout Serbia. On Friday 24 January the students called for a general strike bringing large segments of the country to a standstill whilst demonstrating an impressive level of support for their cause. Initially, the demands of the protesters focused on accountability for the loss of life that occurred on 1 November 2024 at the railway station in Novi Sad when…
Calin Georgescu rightfully has a huge grievance against what passes for “Western democracy.” He is the clear first-round winner in the Presidential elections held in Romania late last year. Yet the even more resounding victory he was projected to achieve in the second round scheduled for early December 2024, was scrapped (as the BBC indelicately put it) following a Romanian Supreme Court ruling that the electoral process was marred by alleged hybrid warfare interference conducted by Russia on Georgescu’s behalf. How do you “scrap” elections in a vibrant democracy such as Romania, which also happens to be a member in…
New Year’s came and went, but as we had surmised Serbia’s Batista did not make his country a wonderful holiday gift by fleeing. Not just yet. The pressure from below however continues to build relentlessly, clouding his political future. The most that the stubbornness of the regime, which has managed to annoy almost everyone, can now hope to accomplish is to merely postpone the inevitable. The latest round of social unrest in Serbia began on 1 November when in the northern city of Novi Sad a recently “reconstructed” roof overhang weighing over 20 tonnes collapsed, squashing seventeen passers-by, of whom…
New Year’s is coming to Serbia, as everywhere else, but it may not just yet give that country the fresh start it yearns as it did in Cuba in 1959, when dictator Batista did his nation a huge favour by leaving. Serbia’s Batista is unlikely in the remaining few days to make a similarly magnanimous gesture, at least not before the turmoil that is currently sweeping that Balkan country intensifies by a few more notches. The social convulsion in Serbia began slightly over a month ago when a protruding portion of the roof at the train station in the city of…
Pepe Escobar was spot on when he stated that the downfall of Syria signified the “death of a nation.” Is it premature to chant a requiem for that marvellous land and its intriguing people, not just their virtues but also their flaws having duly been taken into account? And ought we to do it so soon, as the black flag of Syria’s latest conquerors, matching the darkness of its present circumstances, flutters over it, having just been raised in its capital? Time will tell, but reputable observers appear to be partial to precisely such a sombre conclusion. An argument could…
Western “democracy” has been shown in Romania to be a sham The Romanian presidential election two weeks ago exposed graphically the blatant hypocrisy and total abandonment of even the pretence of moral principle in the collective West. From a field of half a dozen candidates, the winner by plurality of votes was political unknown Calin Georgescu. On 8 December the electoral process will undergo a second round for voters to decide who the next President of Romania will be. In the runoff, competing against Georgescu will be the candidate favoured by the European Union and NATO, Elena-Valerica Lasconi. An outcome…
The populist conservative-nationalist frontrunner might refuse to allow NATO troops to transit through Romania as part of a conventional intervention in Ukraine if he wins the second round next month The surprise victory of populist conservative-nationalist Calin Georgescu in the first round of Romania’s presidential election gives this heterodox outsider the chance to enter into office next month. The Mainstream Media is apoplectic since he criticized Romania’s hosting of the US’ missile defense infrastructure and is against perpetuating NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine. He’s also a devout Orthodox Christian and praised some of his country’s most controversial World War II-era…
Whether Darya Dugina was a martyr in the religious meaning of the expression is not for us to decide. But in secular terms, the gruesome circumstances that claimed the life of this remarkable young woman, who was also a beautiful human being, undoubtedly do elevate her to the rank of martyr. Etymologically, the martyr is a witness who boldly and at grave peril proclaims a transcendent truth or exalted reality. As an engaged intellectual of the first order in her own right, and a public figure recognisable independently of her father, Darya Dugina indeed bore witness to the truth in…