Chauvinistic slogans in Serbia: Albanians are insulted by both supporters and opponents of the government

From accusations of corruption to insults using a derogatory name for an entire nation

The slogans used by demonstrators on the streets of Serbia for a year to demand accountability from the government for the collapse of the Novi Sad canopy are also accompanied by chauvinistic chants.

Directed at President Aleksandar Vučić, these chants insult the Albanian people—using the same term employed by the authorities in their dealings with Kosovo leaders and critics in Serbia.

“I feel disappointed when I hear offensive shouts from both sides. It becomes greater when there is no distancing from such speech,” sociologist Aljtin Boriçi (Altin Boriçi) from Preševo tells Radio Free Europe (RFE).

This town in southern Serbia is home to a majority Albanian population. With 60 thousand citizens, they constitute the fourth-largest national minority in the country.

“They do not exist in any program or public address, they are not on the routes of student Serbia or on the paths of reconciliation, but they are present in derogatory chants,” writer Dejan Atanacković tells RFE.

What are the demonstrators chanting?

From “Your hands are bloody,” through the student slogans “Pumpaj” (Pump) and “Whoever doesn’t jump is a ‘ćaci'” (a term demonstrators use for government supporters), to choral shouts of “Aco, you thief,” “you pederu” (slur), and “Šiptare” (derogatory term for an Albanian), directed at the President of Serbia.

The students, who have been leading massive anti-government protests since the Novi Sad tragedy, have not officially responded to RFE’s questions about the chants that insult nations and minorities.

They do not have a unified stance on these chants, just as they do not on the question of Kosovo.

“Personally, I mainly chant thematically, and now the main thing we are demanding is ‘Call elections.’ I don’t like the ‘Aco Šiptare’ story because it offends minorities, and it’s better to chant something more constructive,” Milan, a student at the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade, tells RFE.

Ivan from the Faculty of Political Sciences, on the other hand, says he has no problem with the messages directed at the Serbian President.

“It’s a metaphor because the man sold Kosovo. That is not an insult to the Albanian people because that is what they call themselves in their own language.”

Although Albanians call themselves Shqiptar, the term “Šiptar” is offensive in the Serbian language and carries a negative connotation.

With the offensive slogan, some demonstrators express their attitude toward Kosovo and its citizens.

“I chant ‘You betrayed Kosovo’ and, of course, ‘Aco, Šiptare’ because Vučić cooperates with them, and we see that he is worse than (Kosovo acting Prime Minister Albin) Kurti,” Jovan from Belgrade told RFE.

Milica states that she “understands that the chants can encourage hatred towards the Albanian community.”

“But I hope that’s not the case because it is still directed only at Vučić because he stands out as a great Serb and a defender of Serbs, but he is actually selling everything that is Serbian.”

Dragan from Belgrade believes that insults have no place at the anti-government protests.

“There are enough witty chants, and these kinds are really not needed,” he says.

Normalized Insult

The chauvinistic slogans are accompanied by only rare public condemnations.

An appeal not to insult Albanians and members of the LGBTI community with chants was made on social networks by Radomir Lazović, an MP from the opposition Green-Left Front in the Serbian Parliament, and certain informal citizens’ assemblies formed at the call of the student movement.

“Some slogans are more reminiscent of the propaganda that led to wars, crimes, and destruction in the nineties, which brought misfortune to millions of people,” the citizens’ assembly of Belgrade’s Stari Grad stated, among other things, on Instagram.

The same offensive name for Albanians is used by both the government and pro-government media.

Former minister and head of the intelligence agency Aleksandar Vulin has publicly called them that multiple times, and other government representatives have done the same.

The position of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality from 2015, as well as a verdict by the Appellate Court in Belgrade, which characterized the use of this term as hate speech in 2018, have not stopped pro-government tabloids, which still fill their front pages with it today.

In addition to insulting the people in Kosovo, they use it to attack and attempt to discredit critics of the authorities in Serbia.

Whose topic is Kosovo?

Nationalist symbols and messages about Kosovo, whose independence Belgrade does not recognize, are present on both sides of the police cordons separating government supporters and opponents.

The narrative of the wartime nineties was loudest at the massive protest organized by students in June, on the religious holiday Vidovdan, and shouts at the police of “Go to Kosovo” and “You betrayed Kosovo” can still be heard today.

“There are many other messages that can be directed at the police, such as: ‘Protect us,’ and so on, because messages like ‘Go to Kosovo’ automatically associate with calls for war,” says sociologist Aljtin Boriči.

Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in 1999 after a war in which more than 10,000 civilians were killed, over 8,000 of whom were of Albanian nationality.

Their bodies were found in mass graves in Serbia, and the crimes of the Serbian army and police were confirmed by the verdicts of the international court in The Hague.

“Neither this regime nor the system of values will be overthrown by allowing flirtation with irrationality and the rhetoric of evil. Least of all by forgetting,” says writer Dejan Atanacković.

On both sides of the cordon

He recalls the gatherings in the center of Belgrade when, on November 2, the government organized a “welcome for Serbs walking from Kosovo” in a tent settlement in front of the Assembly, while anti-government demonstrators gathered near the parliament, where the mother of one of the victims in Novi Sad is on a hunger strike.

“At one point, the flag of the so-called non-givers of Kosovo appeared on both sides of the police cordon,” says Atanacković.

He adds that this is “complicity in the lie” that Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, is a Serbian province—as written in the Constitution of Serbia.

“I am completely convinced that the policy towards Kosovo is one of the key reasons why we are experiencing this corruption and crime. That is why it is important for a political force to emerge that will start talking about reconciliation, not territories,” states Atanacković.

Along with nationalist and Kosovo songs, territories were also discussed at the rally of government supporters.

The Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabić, thanked the “veterans” camping in tents in front of the parliament.

Among them are former members of the disbanded Special Operations Unit (JSO), which participated in the wars in all countries of the former Yugoslavia.

“These incredible, brave people once defended Serbia with weapons. They did not attack anyone; they defended Serbia. Today you have hybrid wars. And they are here again to defend Serbia from that kind of warfare,” said Brnabić.

A similar message was sent by the former Prime Minister and current leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, Miloš Vučević, who also stated that Serbs from Kosovo have been “preserving the Serbian name and surname in the occupied territory” for 26 years.

‘We still hope’

“We continue to hope that the past will serve us as a lesson,” says sociologist Aljtin Boriči from Preševo, adding that young people from the south of Serbia are “more observers than actors” in the political events in the country.

“This is a consequence of a lack of integration. The Serbian non-governmental organizations that have collaborated with our students can be counted on the fingers of one hand,” says Boriči.

Belgrade’s refusal to recognize university degrees obtained in Kosovo is one of the reasons why a large number of them do not see a future in Serbia.

“Some may say that they would not have such difficulties if they had studied in Serbia. But it should be emphasized that, according to official statistics, our municipalities are among the poorest. It is very difficult for families with two or three students, because universities in Serbia are significantly more expensive than in Kosovo,” says Boriči.

The non-recognition of diplomas is an obstacle to employment in Serbia, and discrimination and insufficient representation in institutions are additional reasons for emigration, as pointed out by Albanian political representatives.

They also warn about “address passivation,” or the illegal deletion of citizens of Albanian nationality from their addresses in Serbia, which deprives them of their basic rights. The European Commission has pointed this out multiple times in its reports.

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