Price Reduction

The recent local elections in Podgorica and Herzeg-Novi are regarded as a great success by the official authorities: with the victory in Herceg-Novi, SNP (the Socialist National Party) of Momir Bulatovic finally managed to 'reach the seaside', while a defeat in Podgorica, in spite of the fact that Djukanovic's coalition 'To Live Better' achieved the opportunity to self-manage the capital of Montenegro, was described as a 'satisfying' result.

However, the leader of the Radicals. Dr. Vojislav Seselj, does not agree with this official estimation of recent elections in two cities of Montenegro. Last week, at one of Seselj's regular press conferences, which do not allow further transmission of information due to a protest, and from which the state media usually omit what does not suit them, there was a comment that the elections in Montenegro produced 'bad results'. According to Radio Index (the news was later also published by 'Glas Javnosti' daily), Seselj apparently stated at the press conference that the coalition headed by Bulatovic's SNP, which also included the Serbian Radicals, was inflicted a great loss at he local elections in Montenegro, generated by the Left-Wing Radical Party 'Nikola Pasic' and the Federal Minister of Telecommunications Ivan Markovic, the high official of JUL (the Yugoslav Left). 'Markovic has, in a way still unknown to me, imposed the Left-Wing Radical Party 'Nikola Pasic' (RSL) as a coalition partner. We never had anything in common with that party, we were silent until the elections were over in order not to disturb the relationships within the coalition and do any damage to the overall results', stated Vojislav Seselj. As he said, Ivan Markovic is forcing RSL, he is trying to orchestrate its access to the state media, he is personally organising their appearances at the local TV stations, he is writing their notifications...'

PROBLEMATIC PARTISANS: 'Vucinic (Sinisa, President of RSL 'Nikola Pasic' - the author's note) is launching falsehood via TANJUG agency, newspapers from 'Politika's' corporation and television stations from within Serbia which are dominated by our coalition partners. We are demanding that such campaigns should stop in order to prevent any further disturbance of our coalition relations within Serbia', said the Radical leader on that occasion. Commenting the bad results of the  elections Montenegro, he, according to Radio Index, also accused TV 'YU info', which played partisan films at the time of pre-election campaign and thus 'discouraged' the potential (probably the Radicals) voters to take part in voting.

The imposition of RSL 'Nikola Pasic'is actual since 1998, when someone decided that this party should also become a JUL protégé. At the elections for the Serbian Parliament in Autumn 1997, the RSL representatives, however, reached the number of 16,000 voters (insufficient to enter the parliament), but the officials of Seselj's Radical Party often interpreted that as the 'voters' mistake' and a 'misuse' of the Radical name.

At the head of RSL 'Nikola Pasic' there is also another Chetnik leader, Sinisa Vucinic, but in reports of this party, which are regularly obtaining space in almost all state media, that fact and title are lately somehow easily forgotten, most probably because they do rhyme with the sudden left-wing orientation of the party and its leader. Let us remind ourselves that, on September 1992, Vucinic was appointed the Serbian national voivode (duke) which was then blessed by priest Momcilo Djujic in person. In his accessible speech, the newly appointed voivode declared war to crime in Serbia and promised help by his young assistants in the collection of this year's harvest.

DUEL CHALLENGE: Long before he became one of the members of RSL 'Nikola Pasic', Vucinic was the president of the Serbian Royal Movement, a party which program he conceived himself. According to some journalist testimonies from that period, the program was very simple and original - the borders of Serbia are those which were set by the London Agreement, the head of the Monarchy is Prince Tomislav, the top positions in the government of Serbia can only be assumed by the Serbs, and only they can organise themselves politically, all parties of national minorities are abolished, as well as their self-management...  It is hard to explain what those from JUL liked about that (maybe the care about national minorities), only a few years afterwards Vucinic reached the top of one left-wing party and became very favourite and close to those in power. But it did not include all of them, of course. Seselj and his Radicals never got to like him. At the time when Sinisa Vucinic became a voivode, Seselj mocked him maliciously, calling him the 'harvest-gathering voivode'. Vucinic then returned with the challenge to a duel and with a message that Seselj cannot be saved by 'all possible police of the president who favours him so much'.

As far as it is known, it all ended like that. In the meantime, many voivodes appeared and Serbia never managed to find out who was the strongest and most 'Chetnik-orientated' among them, and who was closest to the Yugoslav Left. Among Seselj's Radicals, however, there is a conviction that RSL 'Nikola Pasic' is a 'regime product' and that they are the 'reserve Radicals' who are sometimes summoned to cause troubles and irritate the genuine Radicals. SRS (the Serbian Radical Party) perhaps knows something more - that many of those who sit at editorial desks in many editorial premises of state-devoted media have been said long ago that the reports of RSL 'Nikola Pasic', which arrive via TANJUG, should be read with great attention and should be published regularly without significant censorship. At the same time, the reports of parties of similar size and importance usually end up in trash. Thanks to 'his men' in big media houses, Seselj is definitely informed about internal 'rules' of certain editorial rooms that the Radical leader is more frequently presented in the newspapers or on TV as a leader of a political party, and quite rarely like Vice-President of the Serbian Government and someone representing the government. It could easily be said that the reason why Seselj is not present on such occasions as those in which Milutin Mrkonjic and Mirko Marjanovic are main protagonists - when a newly erected bridge is officially put into practice, lies in the personal choice of the Radical leader and his party. The reason that they are not very present in the media which are described as 'treacherous' is the choice of those media. It is also someone's choice that they are often present in the media which burst out of patriotism and support to the Government of National Unity, but it is certainly not the Serbian Minister of Information and Seselj's party official, Aleksandar Vucic's choice.

When the Radicals entered the Government of National Unity, certain analysts expressed their open suspicion at the idea that this party's representatives would approach the control of police and the army, and the system of accomplishing the foreign affairs of the state, or that the leaders of this party will be shown on television more frequently than during their period of favouring the current regime. And they were right. The party with 83 representatives in the Serbian Parliament and about fifteen ministers in the Government did not enhance its influence in certain sectors of the government, while their visibility on state television is now much less than that of JUL, which potentiality at the elections was assessed as symbolic in comparison to that of the Radicals. Notifications of the presidential staff of SRS are read on the state television evening news review, but conspicuously after those of SPS (the Serbian Socialist Party) and JUL. But, certainly before those of voivode Vucinic and RSL 'Nikola Pasic' or the Patriotic Alliance.

Minister Vucic has several times openly protested (before he got used to such treatment) against censorship of the Radicals' statements or suppression of that party's activities. At the proper time, for example, the state media omitted to record that the Vice-President of the Serbian Government, Vojislav Seselj (while he was still able) spent two days in Kosovo. Or, they described, in less than 30 seconds, how the Radical leader accompanied by SFOR was driven out of the territory of the Republic of Srpska, where he spent the final period of pre-election campaign, after the command of Carlos Westendorp. Then, however, neither the Government, which Vojislav Seselj promotes, gave any report to protect its Vice-President.

WAVES AS COMFORT: Several days ago, on the occasion of participation in a show of Jagodina's TV 'Palma Plus', Minister of Information Aleksandar Vucic was asked, among other things, what he thought about the objectivity and quality of information programs of RTS (Radio Television of Serbia). The Minister, who is usually quite straightforward, noticeably circumvented around this question, the media house which executive board he himself represents. Instead of a concrete answer, he escaped into philosophising about the objective and subjective, about the subjective experience of the objective, and so on. The result of such a long treatment of the Radicals in the state media (they can show up mainly as the Radicals, but rarely as representatives of the regime) is a pretty widespread public impression that Seselj is actually less authoritative than a member of SPS or JUL with the same position and appointment in the Government of Serbia, and that Vucic is incomparably less a minister than a Goran Matic or a Ivan Markovic. As a compensation for the Radicals, there remains TV 'Palma', which has its own program called 'The Radical Waves' and in which Vojislav Seselj is a frequent guest, whenever they manage to find someone to speak to him publicly. There remains to be seen who will take control of the recently seized Studio B, or rather how the coalition partners will share the hours of information programs on this television.

Vojislav Seselj's comments about the harmful result of his coalition partner Ivan Markovic do not necessarily imply any serious misunderstandings or disparities in the government circles. In the year of important elections, the coalition co-operation and affection surely will not be broken due to a certain voivode Vucinic. Especially not at the moment when the Serbian opposition is doing so much to prolong the existence of the current regime. The Left Wing surely knows who are the 'real Radicals', but they like to support and move forward even those alternative ones, just in case. Seselj also knows that the Left Wing cannot survive without the Right Wing, and that when anyone from the Government utters the word voivode, he actually refers to him. Moreover, he would probably want common people to think more of him when they utter words like government or head of government.

Such disclosure of the coalition's dirty laundry usually happens when a certain important initiative (such as a proposal of a new law) of one of the members comes across an impediment, and then the others in the coalition are publicly notified - we know what you are doing, we know that you are writing others' reports, we shall not be silent forever. The mentioning of the blameworthy ones for the failure in Montenegro could mean that the coalition in power is approaching a serious discussion about the election lists, and that the time has come to reduce the prices on the other hand.