Electoral Fronts

This year will conclude with the counting of empty cartridges. Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska are voting on different political levels and from vastly divergent factions for and against Slobodan Milosevic, that is to say, the policies he epitomizes. Those elections in "Serbian lands" represent a unique anatomy lesson held over the corpse of the Eighth Session which has been rotting for ten years now underneath the bed of the most powerful conjugal couple. Personally, I think that the elections in Montenegro are of the utmost importance. First, because of the fact that the result of those elections will define the coordinates of the Yugoslavia which Milosevic would like to rule over. The second reason has been mentioned already in VREME and concerns the importance of the fact that even the ruling formation in Serbia has split into "reformist" and, let us say "traditional" factions. Something similar could be said of Repubilka Srpska, even though the developments there based on already well known circumstances are only indirectly related to internal Serb questions, and the result of that election battle would not necessarily determine the fate of the war being waged in Yugoslavia. Only an eventual victory by Milo Djukanovic would limit Slobodan Milosevic’s powers, and would contribute to a better way of expressing the completely legitimate desire of people to refuse to all dance to the same tune, and what is more, in unison. Among all those elections battles, the elections in Serbia appear the most interesting: in any case, the Roman Empire did not fall in Rome, but began breaking down at the borders. I am sure that Milosevic is aware of that danger, and that his ability to wage battle on three fronts (in Belgrade, Podgorica and Banjaluka) should in no way be underestimated. The question is how long he will last spread out on three sides. The biggest punishment for him would be the realization of Seselj’s dream of a border spread across the line Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica.