Playing on All Out Victory

While the regime is brandishing weapons and making threats, and citizens are choking with fear, the opposition is trying in a tortured way to head in the direction of some rational action. Goran Svilanovic (1963) President of the Civil Alliance of Serbia since August 1999, and one of the rare opposition politicians who has not been compromised by getting rich in politics, by working with the regime, by fleeing from the country, by a surplus of vanity and a lack of readiness to cooperate with others with the objective of changing Serbia analyzed our unhealthy political climate and offers reasons for optimism.

VREME: Why is it so difficult to change Milosevic's regime?

SVILANOVIC: At no point should we forget the fact that the things Milosevic did had overwhelming support from the citizens of Serbia. Sometimes I ask myself is it possible that everyone is forgetting now how enormous that support used to be. If this is not forgotten, then it becomes easier to understand why it is so difficult to overcome this regime. With all the fair criticism due to the Serbian opposition, we must not forget that a great task has been performed in dealing with nationalism in our country and with an ideology which can only be described as claustrophobic. Traces remain even today, but the sentiments are not widespread the desire for change is greater. It is measured by the lives of those who died in all these wars, by the property which people lost, by the refugee issue, by the emigration of educated young people, by pensioners who have been denigrated, by the unemployed and the number of those who are working in the street, by the destroyed economy and the impoverishment of all citizens of Serbia.
VREME: Is it true that the opposition does not have a strategy for changing the regime?

SVILANOVIC: Our present idea is to change the regime in an election and to maintain stability in this process. This is a very serious task that carries a lot of responsibility with it. The strategy for changing the regime is not a three stage job. It is a strategy of participating in an election and how best to win. I think that the opposition is trying to do that which it is capable of doing.

VREME: What kind of pressure could force the government into calling a general election?

SVILANOVIC: One kind of pressure is what the Alliance for Changes did, and those are daily protests. However, they ended up in relatively limited response from citizens, and they did not change into pressures that could produce results. Another kind of pressure is what we have been doing in the Civil Alliance of Serbia for months already: daily presence throughout the cities in Serbia in which we animate people into believing that they can make a change with their vote.
There is also another possibility. Pressure can result from an incident something people are naturally afraid of, but it can also come from what we see on a daily basis in stores and in our money bills. This is the kind of pressure that does not come from us, but is the result of the years in power by this regime. I think that people in the government should not look lightly upon economic indicators, upon the price of bread, the price of gasoline, various shortages.

VREME: Do you think that Milosevic and his regime will stay in power through the coming winter and into next year and the coming years?

SVILANOVIC: No. I think that they believe that they will weather this period somehow and that they will postpone the election as long as possible. Perhaps they will try to postpone the election beyond the dates prescribed and set in the constitution, meaning that they will try to postpone the federal and local elections which are due this year, given that all indicators clearly show that they have nothing to offer to citizens. All public opinion polls which they conduct on a more frequent basis that we do, enormous dissatisfaction among citizens is evident and this is a problem they have to deal with. That is why I say that it is possible that they might try to provoke a conflict themselves, or that they might exploit an incident for instituting martial law or for postponing an election.

There is also the possibility that something very dramatic could happen in the country. Beside economic hardship there are also at least another two key issues Kosovo and Montenegro. The government reacted to what happened in Kosovska Mitrovica by sending special police forces to the area bordering with Kosovo. It is not outside the realm of possibility that incidents a few days ago a man was killed on Serbian territory outside of Kosovo could really grow into a conflict of greater proportions into which the Serbian Police could be drawn.

VREME: SPS is rallying voters around reform and patriotism. What will the opposition campaign center on?

SVILANOVIC: The economy and the state are central themes. In our election campaign we must raise issues such as: why are we poor, what should we do in order to change this, why are so many people unemployed and what are their chances of getting jobs, what industrial facilities do we have at our disposal and why are they so outdated.

VREME: Thus far elections were never won in Serbia on the basis of economic issues.

SVILANOVIC: Yes, because we always accepted, among other things, for central issues to be sanctions, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo or something similar. I think that we must not repeat this mistake.

We must put fort our own vision of Serbia. As far as Kosovo is concerned, we must demonstrate a high degree of national responsibility, and as far as Republika Srpska is concerned, that is to say the B&H, we must demonstrate wise statesmanship and responsibility for the stability of international relations. We are able to take over responsibility for this country and to guarantee the agreements signed in Dayton and Kumanovo.

And as far as Montenegro is concerned, I want to make my attitude very clear. We will respect every democratically adopted decision in Montenegro (which implies the freedom to organize politically, freedom of information and the freedom to campaign on different issues) must be supported by the democratic part of Serbia. We are ready to talk bout future models of relations between Serbia and Montenegro, keeping in mind that the constitutions drawn up thus far are not sufficiently functional. The most important thing for me is for sincere effort to be invested both in Serbia and Montenegro in order for a framework for association to be found. If such effort is invested, I believe that agreement will be reached.

I wish to clearly state that we will guarantee the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that we will exploit our special relations with Republika Srpska in order to respect the territorial integrity of Bosnia, and not in order to weaken it or divide it.