The Serbian Radical Party, which plunged Yugoslavia into war and genocide and inflicted immense misery on the Serbian people, seems to have polled 28.5% of the vote in the Serbian elections. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they are so toxic that no other party will form a coalition with them. God help the Serbs. They have suffered in so many ways, most notably from disastrous nationalistic leadership.
(I remember well when I gave some lectures in Belgrade before the wars and heard the most amazing racism from a variety of Serbian intellectuals; the most extreme was reserved for Albanians, although they were not generally the first victims. Thankfully, there is a very brave and committed network of Serbian libertarians who are working to counter the hatred, the statism, the racism, the anti-market primitiveness, the socialism, and the support for war and imperialism of the Serbian Radicals. I know and greatly admire a number of them. Much the same can be said of Croatia, but the libertarians there are also tirelessly at work. They deserve our respect for their steadfastness against ethnic cleansing, racism, socialism, and chauvinism, not to mention protectionism, theft, censorship, and corruption.)
Tom,
The ethnic violence that is taking place in Serbia is tragic. Unfortunately, ethnic conflict is very common and active throughout the world.
I like to recommend a book called “World on Fire”, written by Amy Chua. Her book makes some very compelling points and civil arguments on why ethnic hatred and conflict is so very commonplace. If you have the time, check it out.
Tom,
Good news is also that the Radicals, though still the largest party with almost 30%, have been on decline lately. They realize it, and are now changing the rhetorics from nationalism to leftist populism. Not much better though, but less scary than in the 1990s.
The West has contributed a lot to the success of the Radical Party. Serbia is still treated as a guilty one who has to strive for forgiveness, even after the fall of Milosevic. The Kosovo issue also tends to be decided in a way that most probably will not respect the position of Serbia.
Didn’t the Serbian Radical Party govern Yugoslavia in coalition with Milosevic’s Socialist Party? How did “the West” contribute to the success of he Radical Party, since it was in power before and now it’s not? I’m sure that losing a war bolstered nationalism with some, but it also seems to have discredited it with others and those others seem to be in the majority.