Issue No. 191 Friday, September 25 - Thursday, October 08, 2015 ORDER DELIVERY TO Croatian Serbia Mt. Zlatibor YOUR DOOR +381 11 4030 303 landmines entering draws record [email protected] - - - - - - - ISSN 1820-8339 1 pose new new totalitarian number of BELGRADE INSIGHT IS PUBLISHED BY 0 1 threat to era, director domestic refugees says tourists Page 5 Page 6 Page 9 9 7 7 1 8 2 0 8 3 3 0 0 0 Even when the Democrats longas continue to likely is This also are negotiations Drawn-out Surely the situation is urgent Dutchman Many of us who have experi We feel in-the-know because bia has shown us that (a.) no single no (a.) that us shown has bia party or coalition will ever gain the governa form to required majority negotiations political (b.) and ment, will never be quickly concluded. achieved their surprising result at last month’s general election, quickly itbecame clear that the re sult was actually more-or-less the result election other every as same in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive. as Serbia’s politicians form new political parties every time disagree with they their current party reg 342 currently are (there leader political parties in Serbia). istered the norm. One Ambassador Belgrade-based recently told me he was also alarmed by the distinct lack of urgency among politicians. Serbian “The country is standstill at and a I don’t understand their logic. If they are so eager to progress towards the EU and en theycome how investors, courage go home at 5pm sharp and don’t work weekends?” overtime. little a warrant to enough Giant duck becomes EDITOR’S WORD Predictability Political By Mark R. Pullen elections Serbian numerous enced rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election re sults and post-election moves. our experience of elections in Ser - - - - - - - - - - sees Serbia - Belgrade resistance symbol as landNEWS of opportunity Replica of a yel- NEWS low duck used Serbia is a good “The situation in the party seems “Dacic will eventually side with Nikolic agreed: “The question is Fearing they might not cross the Pensioners leader, Jovan Krkoba The reported price is the post of In addition, the Socialists are bar Tadic has denied talk of horse- At the same time, Dacic seems re reach an agreement “If we don’t Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) Source: by the Initiative place to start party over which way to turn. extremely complicated, as we try to convince the few remaining lag gards that we need to move out of one Socialist shadow,” Milosevic’s Party official complained. in a bid to guide his party into Tadic the European mainstream, but much of the membership and many offi cials may oppose that move.” will the party split or ‘old- back down,” he noted. timers’ threshold to enter parlia 5-per-cent ment, the Socialists teamed up with Association of Pensioners and the the led by business United Serbia Party, man Dragan Markovic “Palma”. bic, Palma and Dacic are all pushing for a deal with the Democrats. of deputy PM, with a brief in charge security for the Socialist leader. gaining for other ministries, includ ing capital investments, Kosovo and education, Belgrade media reported. trading with the Socialists, maintain ing that ministries would go only to those committed to working for the “strategic goal”. government’s negotiations with luctant to call off the nationalists. with the DSS and Radicals, par ty leadership will decide on future steps”, Dacic announced, following par new country’s of session first the liament on Wednesday. - - - - “Let’s not drown a business for - foreigners who Belgrade”, became page 10 are not scared a symbol of resis- of the slow and tance against the cumbersome hile the football world watch es events unfold at the Euro controversial “Bel- a strong current also However, Mihajlo Markovic, a founder of Markovic, a prominent supporter Some younger Socialist officials Neighbourhood Matters faces extinction unless it changes. flows in the opposite direction, led by party veterans enraged the Tadic. prospect of a deal with recently warned of a crisis the party, if Dacic opts for the pro-European “nat bloc, abandoning the Socialists’ ural” ideological partners. of Milosevic during the 1990s, is seen as representative of the “old- timers” in the party who want to stay policies, true to the former regime’s even though these almost ruined the Socialists for good. have voiced frustration over the con tinuing impasse within their own Football Rebellion Football pean Championships in Austria and pean Championships in Switzerland, Bosnia is experiencing led by fans, play a soccer rebellion, enraged ers and former stars who are by what they see as corrupt leaders football association of the country’s leaders. bureaucracy. W Issue No. 1 / Friday, June 13, 2008 Issue No. 1 / Friday, - - - - grade Waterfront” - project. Stevan VELJOVIĆ ears of working in the re- page 5 Saša DRAGOJLO gion for a Dutch NGO, in which one project was help- embers of the Ser- ing young people start their bian government own businesses, helped were startled YRalph van der Zijden discover unlikely conomists are warning that pro over Serbia’s uncertainty longed “This year has been lost, from the when they first business opportunities in Belgrade. After eight years of stagnation, the pro-European and nation With Nikolic believes the Socialists, led “The group of younger Socialists Business Insight Costs Mounting future could scare off investors, lead investors, lead future could scare off to higher inflation and jeopardise prosperity for years to come. says standpoint of economic policy,” Econom the of Stamenkovic Stojan ics Institute in Belgrade. to Serbia’s late president, Slobodan to Serbia’s Milosevic, and reformists who want the party to become a modern Euro pean social democrat organisation. the Socialists returned to centre stage after winning 20 of the 250 seats in elections. parliament in the May 11 alist blocs almost evenly matched, the Socialists now have the final say on the fate of country. by Ivica Dacic, will come over to if only out of a pragmatic de Tadic, sire to ensure their political survival. gathered around Dacic seems to be adding said, Nikolic majority”, the in that these reformists believe the party saw a giant yellow In 2011, he founded the company, E - - - - styrofoam duck IBikeBelgrade, offering guided cy- - Min front of parliament on April 2nd. That cle tours through Belgrade on which two-metre replica duck was the work young people could learn about the of a “flash mob” action organized by ac- city without getting bored by facts and Friday • June 13 2008 tivists from “Let’s not drown Belgrade” history. - the most persistent opponents of the “I used to work in the region in Ko- Belgrade Waterfront project, which the sovo and Macedonia, and later also in mayor of Belgrade calls “the biggest Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, I kept on project in Europe”. THIS ISSUE OF seeing business opportunities - things Belgrade Insight IS SUPPORTED BY: IS SUPPORTED that are very common in other Euro- on a new gov ense negotiations ernment have divided the ranks “It looks as if the Socialists will Simultaneous negotiations held This divides “old-timers” loyal Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains Lure of Tadic Alliance Splits Socialists Tadic Lure of government, old pro-EU While younger Socialists support joining a new, over the prospect. revolt Milosevic loyalists threaten in Belgrade By Rade Maroevic pean capitals but that did not happen in which holds of the Socialist Party, the balance of power between the blocs and has yet to announce main which side they will support. move towards a government led by the Democrats,” political analyst Mi lan Nikolic, of the independent Cen tre of Policy Studies, said. “But such a move might provoke deeper divi sions and even split the party.” with the pro-European and national ist blocs have drawn attention to a deep rift inside the Socialists. T Belgrade yet,” he says. Continued on page 3 River police at the Belgrade Boat Carnival on August 29th confiscated a banner with the name of the initiative on it. Photo: Facebook He loved the region so much that he quit his job in Holland and moved to Belgrade as “the only really big city in the region”. Albanians see red “I wanted to start small, so if it failed I would not lose too much. I started with a second-hand bike, a website and about Tirana’s new bunker some flyers,” he recalls. Luckily for him, the business started Mysterious decision to erect a new bunker in ing the pavement and creating a pedes- They accused the government of be- well, encouraging him to expand oper- trian zone. ing insensitive to the feelings of tens of ations to the northern city of Novi Sad, Tirana prompts claims that the left-wing govern- The project plan has not been made thousands people who suffered under where iBikeNoviSad now organizes available to the public, however, and Hoxha’s rule, a viewpoint shared by similar tours. ment feels nostalgic for Albania’s old dictator. no one knows what the bunker is sup- many. posed to mean. On Saturday, dozens of police were DEALING WITH Gjergj EREBARA The centre-right opposition Demo- The government has offered no deployed around the new bunker to THE BUREAUCRACY cratic Party is so angry about what it explanation for what it is doing, or re- protect it from the ire of the protesters, ens of thousands of Com- sees as Communist-era nostalgia that vealed who conceived and designed it.