The Spirit of Autonomy

"At elections with at least a minimum of equal conditions, the current authorities, even within the quasi-proportional system, wouldn't stand a chance in Vojvodina", said Dragoslav Petrovic, president of the Reformist Democratic Party to "Vreme". It is interesting that with the idea about a broader alliance of the so called democratic opposition in Serbia, due to the question of Vojvodina, this pragmatic politician has so far managed to form an electoral alliance only with the Democratic party because it seems that this was the only party ready to bring into the coalition a "written" consent to the well known reformist "Declaration on Vojvodina". Therefore, even in Vojvodina the opposition didn't manage to sign some kind of major pre-election agreement. However, even the Democratic party didn't take easily this arrangement, because the president of its Executive committee Zoran Djindjic hurried right after the convention of the Citizens' Alliance in Novi Sad to issue an announcement against Vojvodina's autonomy, of the kind that is allegedly being offered to it by Vesna Pesic, president of the Serbian reformists. Namely, the Citizens' Alliance is the other political bloc which expects somewhat more votes in Vojvodina than it could realistically expect in Serbia. This alliance also didn't start off very harmoniously, although Mrs.Pesic assessed, at the mentioned convention (October 18th), that "it has unequivocally been proved that coalitions and the unification of democratic forces creates trust among the citizens, while narcissist quarrels lead to aversion and disappointment not only in the parties, but, which is even worse, in politics as such, in the multi-party system and parliamentary democracy". The fear of all Belgrade politicians that their parties in Vojvodina will not be Serbian enough, that is, that with the "civil option" they will gain less than they could loose as dubitable Serbs there where the number of votes is larger, can especially be seen through the controversial moves by the Democratic Party, which evidently expects the most from Vojvodina. Milan Popovic, president of the party's regional committee in Pancevo considers that it is ridiculous not to take advantage of the big "crack in the wall of the authorities", as obviously exists in Vojvodina, only because of the fear of "the spirit of the old leadership that used to advocate an autonomy, which hangs above everyone's head". He is one of the advocates of broader cooperation between the opposition in the province, and even with political organizations of national minorities, especially the Hungarians, who are practically being pushed into a political alliance of their own by the policy of national confrontation stimulated by the ruling party and its right wing, which allegedly is in the opposition. After this summer's real wave of documents on Vojvodina's autonomy, as we approach the elections it seems that this question is not being pushed into the forefront, because here too it is more important for the opposition that in Serbia as a whole "the exponents of a lost, anachronous and irresponsible policy be neutralized, possibly by peaceful means" (Dragoslav Petrovic). Even Zivan Berisavljevic, who rallies a group of old politicians in the All-national Democratic front of Vojvodina said to "Vreme" that even in regard to autonomy "all questions are now open, and the citizens will give the answers". This group of passionate advocates of autonomy, however, is no longer in favour of the solutions from the 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and even assesses such a request as "anachronous and senseless", because there is no more old Yugoslavia, no more old Serbia, and it was not in that year that Vojvodina's autonomy was first thought of. Although public opinion polls in Vojvodina show that the Milosevic-Seselj coalition is loosing influence (even by less than 30% together), these two parties are now behaving quite indolent (if we disregard certain explosive demonstrations). The reason lies either in the inability of the "officers", or perhaps they are waiting for the leaders to act. The Congress of the Socialist Party of Serbia passed unnoticed.