This article originally appeared on VICE Serbia
Elections in Serbia are generally pretty eventful – there’s usually some talk of voter fraud, or threats made to opposition candidates. But whatever the result of the elections, one fact remains unchanged: relatively few young Serbs show up at the polls.
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Yesterday’s presidential elections in Serbia were a different story. Young people took to the polls in droves – mostly inspired by a satirical candidate who started out as a prank during the local elections in 2016. Ljubisa Preletacevic “Beli” is played by 25-year old student Luka Maksimovic, and the character is a corrupt, lying populist who promises the most outrageously impossible things just to win votes. He claims to be pure and innocent at the same time, which is meant to be highlighted by his nickname “Beli” (which means “white” in Serbian) and the fact that he always wears a white suit. His young supporters were happy somebody finally mocked the self-absorbed and corrupt local politicians, and the joke eventually led to Luka Maksimovi’s character becoming an official presidential nominee. The hope was that his win could mean an overthrow of the whole system.
Yet neither Maksimovi, nor the young Serbs who were finally feeling excited about voting, nor the main opposition candidate Sasa Jankovic were able to prevent a victory for conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Vucic was once a hardline nationalist but turned pro-European centrist, and has been accused widely of corruption and autocratic rule during his time in power. The opposition in Serbia has been in disarray for years, and it failed to collectively get behind one candidate, enabling Vucic and and his Serbian Progressive Party to win 55 percent of the votes.
The main opposition candidate Sasa Jankovic received 16.2 percent of the votes, and was mostly backed by a number of prominent intellectuals and young people fed up with Vucic’s government. He was a fierce critic of Vucic during the campaign.
Vucic will take on the largely ceremonial post of Serbian president for the next five years, while his Serbian Progressive Party will keep helming the government. That means not much will change in Serbia, where an average salary is still only about £320 a month for people who do manage to find a job – according to UN numbers, the official unemployment rate is at 19.7 percent, while youth unemployment is at 44.2 percent. Corruption is still widespread and the government recently sponsored sketchy investment programmes, like the Belgrade Waterfront project, which sparked a wave of street protests last year.
I asked some young voters I met at the end of election night and this morning how they felt about the election results. One of them, 18-year old student Jovana, voted for Vucic and is feeling “very, very happy that Serbia has a ‘real president’”.
When I ask what she means by that, she tells me: “I’m too excited to talk now. I just expect that he’ll make sure that Serbia will continue on the path of progress that it’s already on.”
Vucic’s victory wasn’t a happy fact for all – 26-year old historian Marko Todic is one of the many young people who are seriously disillusioned with this outcome. “I was really hoping for a change,” he says. He tells me that he feels that Serbia has become more corrupt since Vucic and his party came to power in 2012, and that they’ve given out jobs to people connected with the party. “So many young people have left the country, and I think corruption is the main reason for that.”
“I don’t like the direction he has taken Serbia in at all,” he tells me.
25-year old student Nevena Sredojevic says she’s thinking of leaving Serbia, because she’s very disappointed with the outcome of the elections. She won’t be alone – an estimated 30,000 Serbs move abroad each year. Especially university graduates are unable to find work in the country.
“I don’t know if it’s out of fear or something else, but people here don’t want to fight for something better. That makes me feel less at home and less inclined to stay here,” she says.
26-year old actor Amar Mesic also thinks about leaving, although he does find it exciting that these last elections have stirred up something in young people that led them to the polls.
“But I need to take control of my life and earn a living with what I’ve studied for. I’m a trained actor and I want to work as an actor, but it’s very hard here. So I’ll have to look for jobs somewhere else,” he tells me.
Sonja, 28, had also hoped the results of the election had turned out differently.
“Well, I’m planning to pack my bags. If people haven’t realised by now that they should vote to change the crisis Serbia is in, nothing is likely to get better in the near future,” she says.
Kristina Ivanović is a 21-year old graphic designer, and her hopes have been squashed, too. “It’s especially painful because these were the first elections I was optimistic and excited about.”
“I expected more. Now that Vucic has won 55 percent of the vote, there won’t be a second round between Vucic and a candidate from the opposition. That would have been the case if he had gotten less than 50 percent. He just won the presidency in one round, which means there will be absolutely no change now – nothing,” she says.
“It’s become so clear that this country doesn’t want to get worse or better – people just want to hold on to the status quo,” he says.
In Mladenovac, a small town near Belgrade, supporters of the young satirical candidate Beli celebrated his “victory” last night, although he lost this presidential run. With his Beli character, Luka Maksimovic won over 300,000 votes. That’s about 9.4 percent, which is pretty impressive for a newcomer running against career politicians – especially since he’s just taking the piss. His supporters, with no experience in politics whatsoever, organised a grass-roots campaign ranging from making memes to setting up big political events in Serbian towns and villages. Young people showed up and seemed to take an interest in politics – as long as it meant overthrowing the passive, conservative system Serbia has been stuck in.
27-year old Jelena Jevric tells me: “It’s just really great that young people have had their political awakening during these elections. Vucic’s victory might be a humiliating defeat for us, but I know now that I will never leave this country – there is so much to keep fighting for.”
*This article was amended on October 22nd. A photo and some text were removed to protect an interviewee’s privacy.
