Political Culture and Dialogue

Severe heatwaves are not the only factor boiling up the atmosphere in Serbia this summer. Tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets in a wave of protests for 12 consecutive weeks. The scale of these protests, erupting in Belgrade and spreading across almost 40 Serbian cities and towns, is the most massive wave over the last 20 years. One cannot help but wonder if the boiling tension on the streets amidst a volatile environment is a prelude to a supercell democratic storm determined to drive social change.

In this far-ranging interview, our office director, Nino Lejava talks to NIN Award winning author and director of the KROKODIL independent cultural center, Vladimir Arsenijević, about the historical and political foundations of Serbia's current geopolitical as well as cultural position with regard to its immediate neighbors, as well as Europe.

The need for practitioners and history promoters to do historical work “beyond the walls of the traditional classroom” is constantly growing. One of the main takeaways from our recent study trip to Berlin is that public and open discussions about the past and remembering are crucial for building future welfare.

Memorials are more than memories cast in basalt and concrete; as reference points, they are sources of veneration and contempt, at the mercy of political interests and deliberate acts of manipulation.

URA is a new, pro-European green political party that emerged in 2015 as a response from free individuals to the difficult political and economic situation in Montenegro, desiring to finally see democratic change and Montenegro standing among modern European countries with high standards of living.

The initiative originated as a local social movement which, both institutionally and extra-institutionally, by participating in public debates and civil protests, pointed out the harmfulness of Belgrade's water projects in order to develop over the years into a relevant political actor who advocates in accordance with the needs of its inhabitants.

The statements by state and city officials since the beginning of the construction works on the monument have made it clear that the monument is not only about Stefan Nemanja or medieval history. The war in Kosovo and the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 constitute key points of the official memory politics in which the current state actors invest incredible efforts. 

What happened in Skopje was a neoliberal appropriation of the public space. While everyone talks about the state expropriation of land in the city centre, coloured by a symbolic nationalist attack on all senses, the capitalist plunder of the public space throughout the city happened quietly - and that is the most important element of this endeavour.

The monument to the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty has been the subject of numerous criticisms, both because of its astronomical price and its over-dimensioned size, the location and controversial aesthetics. What does the monument to Stefan Nemanja say about the memory politics that the regime of Aleksandar Vučić wants to promote?