Lily Lynch
Vučić started his political career as a member of the Radical Party of Serbia, which was a far-right party, known during the 1990s as being very intimately connected to the state security forces. It was used by Milošević almost as a way to portray himself as a moderate figure, because the Radicals were so extreme and so far to the right.
Vučić actually served as minister of information under Milošević in the last years of his rule and became notorious as a zealous pursuer of critical journalists. He figured out at an early stage that controlling Serbia’s media was essential to holding power, and he also understood the necessity of maintaining a close relationship with organized crime and the deep-state security services.
He was an extreme figure, who famously said during the war on Bosnia, “We’re going to kill a hundred Muslims for every Serb.” Because of statements like that, he was considered to be a very odious figure, both for the domestic opposition and for people elsewhere in the region who were not Serbs. He remained a rising star in the Radical Party all the way through to the period after Milošević fell, when they went into opposition.
This continued through the mid-2000s until the latter part of the decade. That period of time was the pinnacle of support for EU membership in Serbia: people saw their future as being in the EU, regardless of their political orientation.
Yet the Radical Party, of which Vučić was one of the leading members, had always been hostile to the EU. After the 2008 election, when the Radicals lost to the Democratic Party, the liberal, center-left group associated with figures like Zoran Đinđić, they realized that they would need to change their ways if they were ever going to enter power.
Another important thing which happened in 2008 was that Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Of…
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Auteur: Lily Lynch
