How graffiti connects Kosovo and Vojvodina

“Brigada sever” – a similar signature on graffiti in two cities and two countries, but different messages.

The graffiti ” North Brigade, Vojvodina to the people of Vojvodina” appeared in several places in Novi Sad, the largest city in Vojvodina province in northern Serbia.

They were published on 13th November  by the informal organization “Mlada Vojvodina,” which publicly takes the position that “Vojvodina should be a republic.”

“Brigada Sever” (Brigade North) was also the signature on the graffiti that appeared on the same day as the Novi Sad graffiti in northern Kosovo. These graffiti call for “resistance” against the Kosovar authorities in the days when the representatives of the Serbs left the institutions.

“Since November 21, everyone is obliged to resist at every turn! Brigade North,” reads a graffiti in North Mitrovica in the colors of the Serbian flag. It is a reaction to the Kosovo government’s decision to punish vehicles with license plates issued by Serbian parallel authorities and considered illegal. The decision comes into force on November 21.

RSE has no information about who is behind the signature “Brigade North” in northern Kosovo.

Graffiti with a similar signature also appeared in August in northern Mitrovica with the message “Don’t worry! We are here! We’re waiting!” at the beginning of heightened tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.

Aleksandar Popov of the non-governmental Center for Regionalism in Novi Sad sees the call to boycott Kosovar authorities in the same context as the call for Vojvodina’s secession as a “provocation.”

“It seems to me that it is someone’s provocation to compromise even this little bit of autonomy, which is just an empty frame without an image,” he said in a statement to Radio Free Europe (RSE).

The Vojvodina region, home to some 1.9 million people according to the latest data, hosts more than 20 national communities and has constitutionally guaranteed provincial autonomy in Serbia.

On the other hand, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and considers it a province under the name “Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija”.

What is the “connection” between Kosovo and Vojvodina?

The informal group “Mlada Vojvodina” did not respond to RFE’s question about the idea behind the graffiti “North Brigade, Vojvodina to Vojvodina” by the time this text was published.

A senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and former deputy in the Vojvodina Assembly, Milenko Jovanov, told RFE/RL that there is “only one” connection between Kosovo and Vojvodina.

“The only parallel between the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija is that they are autonomous provinces in the Republic of Serbia,” he said. There is no other parallel that can be drawn,” Jovanov said.

Aleksandar Popov believes that the comparison of Vojvodina with the north of Kosovo is “neither logical, nor appropriate, nor useful for anyone in Vojvodina.”

Although northern Kosovo is part of the state of Kosovo, it is not fully integrated into the Kosovo system. In four majority Serb-populated municipalities in the north, the government is led by the Srpska Lista, a party that enjoys the support of the authorities in Belgrade.

The secretary general of the regional party League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Bojan Kostreš, criticized the graffiti messages in Vojvodina.

“Given the fact that we are talking about young people, I suppose, such a rigid and perhaps aggressive message is not good. Tense relations or conflicts between Vojvodina and Belgrade are not good at this moment, neither for Vojvodina nor for the whole country of Serbia,” he said for RSE.

How do the citizens of Vojvodina see it?

Marija from Novi Sad believes that “the Kosovo issue never had, has and never will have anything to do with separatism in Vojvodina.”

“I believe that the percentage of supporters of Vojvodina’s secession has always been at the level of a statistical error, but politicians and the media like to give it more importance than the issue deserves,” she said.

“I think that behind everything is the motive of every government to reject the issue of real decentralization, which every society, including ours, needs,” Marija concludes.

Both Kosovo and Vojvodina are “provinces in Serbia” for Stefan from Zrenjanin.

“I am against the independence of Kosovo. But I think there is a big chance that it will completely separate from Serbia now,” he said.

He believes that “no parallel can be drawn between the Kosovo and Vojvodina issues.”

“Vojvodina is multi-ethnic, all nations are accepted and there are no tensions. The principle of policy towards Kosovo and Vojvodina is completely different. Kosovo has been at the crossroads of division for 30 years, while I do not see anything comparable in Vojvodina,” he said.
He believes that “no parallel can be drawn between the Kosovo and Vojvodina issues.”

“Vojvodina is multi-ethnic, all nations are accepted and there are no tensions. The principle of policy towards Kosovo and Vojvodina is completely different. Kosovo has been at the crossroads of division for 30 years, while I do not see anything comparable in Vojvodina,” he said.

“When I see the slogan “Vojvodina to the people of Vojvodina”, I have no problem with it,” said Ivana from Zrenjanin.

He adds that “Vojvodina’s autonomy is a matter for its citizens, not for the government in Belgrade.”

“Just as the government in Belgrade should not fuel tensions in independent Kosovo.”

Who is behind the slogan “Brigade North, Vojvodina to the people of Vojvodina”?

Reacting to the graffiti signed by “Mlada Vojvodina,” Milenko Jovanov told RFE/RL that it was a “dangerous activity of a completely harmless political group.”

“This is done by the same people who are very loud when they see slogans like ‘Serbia to the Serbs,’ which shows, first, that they are hypocritical, and second, that they are very inclined to a certain fascist way of thinking.” he added.

He believes that the graffiti represent “those who want to regain the role of representatives of the interests of Serbian citizens living in the area of AP Vojvodina”, and who have profited the most from “the story of Vojvodina”.

When asked which political group he was referring to, Jovanov did not specify.

On the other hand, Aleksandar Popov from the non-governmental Center for Regionalism assesses: “Knowing all the actors who advocate for autonomy in Vojvodina, they certainly wouldn’t do that, certainly not at this moment, because it compromises their idea.”

One of the main concerns of these parties is the adoption of the so-called “Vojvodina laws” – the law determining the competences of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the law on financing competences, which has been a constitutional obligation of Serbia since 2006 , when the new Constitution was adopted.

The regional party League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) bases its political identity on demands for the expansion of Vojvodina’s autonomy.

In an interview with RSE, the general secretary of this party, Bojan Kostreš, assessed that the graffiti in Novi Sad was an attempt to “attract attention.”

“I think that such a message is practically an attempt to draw attention to the authorities in Serbia, but also to Serbian nationalists who, in addition to the so-called ‘southern Serbian province’, whose independence has been recognized by a large number In the Western countries, according to nationalist nomenclature, there is also a so-called ‘northern Serbian province’, i.e. Vojvodina.

He adds that “the people who live there want to be a part of Serbia, but they also want to live better and for Vojvodina’s right to manage its resources to be accepted.”

“The secession of Vojvodina belongs to the past”.

The issue of Vojvodina’s autonomy is one of the most important political issues in this province, and parties have polarized their programs into demands for greater autonomy for the province and those against it.

Parties calling for more autonomy for Vojvodina are often accused of separatist aspirations by right-wing political forces.

“We should not go back to the past, of course, but we should find mechanisms in the future by which the people of Vojvodina will direct their economy and be responsible for their prosperity,” believes Kostreš, whose party in the past was advocating the idea of the “Republic of Vojvodina.”

Aleksandar Popov of the Center for Regionalism believes that “all serious actors on the political and social stage in Vojvodina have abandoned this idea.”

“At some point in the first decade of this century, it was relevant there. But it was understood that it was counterproductive and, above all, unrealistic,” said Aleksandar Popov.
The 2006 Constitution of Serbia maintained Vojvodina’s status as a province in Serbia, but did not return its jurisdictional rights from the 1980s, which is the wish of several Vojvodina parties.

“Development road” of the former two provinces.

Vojvodina’s autonomy, which it enjoyed in SFR Yugoslavia, was significantly reduced in 1988 when former President Slobodan Milošević came to power.

In the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution, also known as the Yogurt Revolution, organized crowds threw yogurt at and besieged the headquarters of top officials of the Union of Communists of Vojvodina.

Officials were accused of being “autonomists” and they were replaced by Milošević’s

In 1989 and 1990, the 1974 constitution was amended, guaranteeing Vojvodina and Kosovo extensive autonomy as provinces at the time. Their executive, legislative and judicial branches were abolished.

Repression in Kosovo culminated in the late 1990s. Because of the exodus and crimes committed by Serbian military and police forces against the Albanian population in Kosovo, NATO forces bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in March 1999. More than 10,000 people were killed in this war, and thousands went missing.

The war in Kosovo ended with the Kumanovo Peace Agreement, which saw the Serbian army and police withdraw from Kosovo, and nine years later Kosovo declared its independence./RSE/