Serbian nationalist propaganda through culture, sport and film

The commitment to interpret inciting and starting wars and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, especially during the 90s, as those to which others have contributed, and in no way the Serbian cultural, political and intellectual elites, the Republic of Serbia and the regime of Aleksandar Vučić have been doing it in an organized way for years. The nationalist interpretation of the past without a sense of intellectual responsibility is the imperative upon which every Serbian intellectual and cultural commitment comes to life. Cultural and sports organizations in a nationalist chorus, above all hateful to others, are not the occasion of the moment. The unfolding of nationalist and racist choreographies in Serbian sports, cultural and musical fields is part of the orchestrated engagement of the current political regime in Serbia. All these hateful attitudes towards everything non-Serbian in the Western Balkans are maintained and curated carefully and in a structured way. Propaganda through Serbian culture, sport, film and music maintains the nationalist emotion, which is not in the tradition of the Serbian political mentality, but it also gives energy to the ruling regime of the Serbian state.

In 2019, the ministries of culture of Serbia and the Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a Charter aimed at the orientation and preservation of Serbian culture, in what is said to be the Serbian cultural space. “By the Serbian cultural space, we mean the space where the Serbian people have lived or are living for a long historical period, leaving traces of material and immaterial cultural heritage, either within the borders or outside the borders of their state creations. In other words, it is not possible to reduce the boundaries of cultural spaces to the boundaries of a single political or state space”, explains in its second article, the Charter for the Serbian Cultural Space, the entire involvement of Serbian cultural engagement. The core narrative of the Charter is to treat all Serbs living outside Serbia as part of a single Serbian body, ethnically and culturally. The clear echo of the ideas continues to be that of the history of the great-Serbian project, brought out by the explanations of the “Serbian world”, which aims to unite all Serbs. By elaborating on the Serbian cultural space, the version of a single political and territorial space is interpreted. Preferably, at any cost without the other and the different!

The charter supports and strengthens the preservation and interpretation of the culture of the Serbian people, in Serbia and Republika Srpska, in the region and in diaspora or emigration, from Trebinja and Herceg-Novi to Subotica and Vrshac, from Vranje and Gracanica to Banja Luka. According to the Charter, Serbian culture “will develop in its values and traditions, in the field of contemporary creativity and in the field of preservation, study and presentation of cultural heritage”. The spirit and ideas of this Charter as an official and guiding document are not new. They have been present in Serbian historiographical and political discourse for decades, except that the state regime of Aleksandar Vučić gives them state cover and foundation. On top of this coverage, the Serbian state is committed to taking care of the Cyrillic script, which it protects by law. In 2021, the People’s Assembly of Serbia approved the law on the protection of the Serbian language and the Cyrillic script, which increased the circle of actors and subjects who are obliged to use the Cyrillic script. Now, culture, language and Cyrillic script in Serbia’s official documents are treated as a matter of national security. This is also understood by the “National Security Strategy of the Republic of Serbia”.

In relation to this Charter, the People’s Assembly of Serbia, years ago, approved the “Cultural Development Strategy of the Republic of Serbia 2020-2029”. This document would regulate the way of “preserving the Serbian language and Cyrillic and connecting the Serbian cultural space”. The strategy provides ideological guidelines for cultural productions which will be strongly supported by the Ministry of Culture of Serbia. Immediately after the approval of this strategy and in the spirit of the Charter of the Serbian Cultural Space, the film “Dara from Jasnovci” was produced, which portrays the Serbian suffering caused by others. International professional criticism of the film was an opportune moment for the regime to portray Serbs as hated by others and not loved by them. The screenwriter was honored with presidential medal by President Aleksandar Vučić with the Order of Karadjordje of the third star. The state reward for the team is the support to make a remake of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime film about “Battle of Kosovo”. In continuation of this journey for “preserving the Serbian cultural space” in January of the current year, the new film “Storm” was shown. At the center of this cultural and filmic creation is the dogma that the Serbian people have always suffered from others without ever committing any crime.

Even in the field of sports, it is the same commitment. And not only engagement of fans, but also of athletes directly, of all calibers. Tennis player Novak Djokovic is the inspiration and model of how it is propagated on account of nationalist and racist policies, but within the body politic of the regime of Aleksandar Vucicic, it is considered a national act. Non-punishment by the authorities that are called for the culture and order of sports, is nothing but energy for propagandists and Serbian racist fans.

The result of this order is the fact that the international factor, after the fall of the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic, does not condition Serbia sufficiently or at all with the rule of denazification of the Serbian political mentality, regardless of the circumstances that that policy had created. In addition, the former minister of information of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, Aleksandar Vučić, was seen by the international factor as a change and democratic progress of Serbia, and in no way a continuation of that political mindset that had destroyed the lives of people and peoples in the Western Balkans. /TheGeopost