The government has been running a successful campaign since the first day the election results were announced, and which the opposition has neither the strength nor the prowess to counter
What the government has been doing since election day is aggressively imposing a new narrative framework, proactive reframing.
Specifically, the government took advantage of the amateurism of the opposition during the campaign, on election day and on election night, in order to launch a kind of counterattack in two steps and to fortify itself perceptually, and perceptually absolve the elections. This boils down to a comprehensive procedure in two steps:
(I) NEUTRALISATION. Government: Post-election protests = anger over defeat, destruction of Serbia, service to the West.
In this aspect, the government is utilising the wiggle room it received with the clear pro-SNS signals provided by the Americans, Russians and most European countries in order to rapidly suppress the perception of domestic discontent. Externally, he receives favour from the West and the East, while at the same time, internally, for the mostly pro-Russian public, he portrays this dissatisfaction as an alleged pro-Western overthrow of the legitimate government (‘Maidan’). This perceptually isolates citizens who are dissatisfied with the election process and suspect that they were stolen by painting them as a minority of dubious anti-state elements (“Violence against Serbia”).
(II) NEW TOPIC, NEW RULES. Government: This is Serbia in 2025, it’s within easy reach, let’s make it a reality.
The government is returning to its central trans-ideological theme of growth, development, stability. At first glance, this appears to be a logical theme for any government. However, in the current situation of widespread tension, broadcasting such a conference live via several dozen television stations and media outlets has a hidden objective: to shift the focus and public attention as far away as possible from the issue of elections and possible election theft by weaving a new topic. In this way, by utilising the record high volume of pro-regime media space, the government simply announces a new topic and a new priority in daily debate. It thereby symbolically sidelines the topic of the election.
In that sense, the elections are increasingly more of a pebble and less of a boulder in the shoe of the government.
Independently of accusations about election process irregularities, the government faces trials and tribulations on the foreign policy front and due to structural instability within the party itself
With its amateur campaign, the opposition failed to utilise highly emotive topics in the campaign (violence and Kosovo), while they also accepted election recording and didn’t declare their own results, rather allowing the authorities to declare victory and set the framework, and to now reap the rewards.
Furthermore, by placing an emphasis on Belgrade, and quietly ignoring results at the national level, the opposition, consciously or not, served the government’s long-standing and carefully created anti- elitist framing of them (“they want Belgrade; they want money; they don’t care about Serbia or about the poor”). Likewise, hunger strikes only work if championed by a unique individual, a symbol, someone who is ready to go all the way and become the face of resistance, its symbol, and not if it boils down to a hit-and-miss attempt by a few people who the government can elegantly ignore, and even ridicule.
When you head down the wrong road, every subsequent station is perilous.
For anyone who wants to engage in a political battle, not accepting mandates is ludicrous, while this act simultaneously almost certainly promotes a new round of media interpretations from the government, which will declare the greed of the opposition for the national assembly and budget funds.
The government is awaited by pressing geopolitical challenges (Kosovo; promises given to “international partners”) and addressing its own structural instabilities (party interests; skeletons in closets), while the opposition on both the left and the right is awaited by hard work and learning – about proper analysis, work on the ground and the intelligent, long-term profiling of leaders able to carry the electoral struggle. Now is the time to start preparing for future campaigns.
