Director of Novi Sad’s Center for Regionalism, Aleksandar Popov, says that the campaign led by DSS (Democratic Party of Serbia) against pro–European block is an attempt to reduce the topic of elections to division to patriots and traitors. He pointed in the interview for our newspaper that this might even weaken the rating of pro–European coalition if DS and parties of this block were constantly in the defensive position.
– If DS and its coalition partners try to be more offensive in their campaign and make clear to citizens that with DSS they cannot build the European future of Serbia, then division to traitors and patriots will not ‘hold water’. If they allow DSS to impose this theme then the pro–European coalition will be faced with many problems. And from this the Radicals will derive the highest profit, given that the “populists” are already doing the job for them in this or that way, – said Popov.
He said that it was illusion that Serbia could have Kosovo if abandoning the European course and that the society would pay too high price opting for such an illusion.
– Citizens must know how much each of these two options costs and where Serbia will find itself in two years from now if it rejects to cooperate with the most developed countries of the world and with EU – said Popov.
He said that due to the quasi–patriotic rhetoric of the populist block today’s Serbia looked the same as at the beginning of the nineties.
– The fact that DSS has been attempting to turn the focus of campaign away from life problems towards a sort of patriotic story is déjà vu politics led by Milosevic’s regime. We now have the same scheme: defense of Kosovo is the cover up for everything. They impose that division to patriots and traitors and on their list of traitors there is already the name of G17 Plus leader Mladen Dinkić after he informed the coalition partner in the Government that G17 Plus had no intention to take part in the collective madness. However, LSV and Nenad Čanak are for DSS still the “proof” that coalition around DS is “non–patriotic”. Thus it is on the pro–European block to send a clear message to citizens what they will gain and what they will loose choosing between their and populist option, – said Popov.

(Dnevnik)