As extremists win in Serbia and Greece – Egypt took a historic step closer to democratic normality on Wednesday. The economic crisis also presents new political opportunities.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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Singer. A donkey leaves the Balkan countryside, a beast with courses for Montenegro's urban life. On the donkey's back sits the Balkan cultural artist, mathematician and former sailor Rambo Amadeus (49).
The man from Macedonia wanted to make history, change his Europe. First he won the final in his home country. Then he participated this week in the European Melo Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan. And in its cryptic, but also symbolic, Grand Prix contribution "Euro Neuro", the Belgrade-resident Montenegrin gives his glimpse into today's crisis Europe.
The classic myth of the Montenegrin man – as a warrior and poet – is confirmed in the song. And with Prime Minister of today's Montenegro, Igor Luksic, who has published his poetry collections and conducts loud reading surrounded by bodyguards.
The same was done by Prince Bishop Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, who ruled the country from 1830 to 1851. He wrote poetry on ethnic cleansing, such as Radovan Karazdic in the early 1990s, pointing to it in the spring of a century and a half, in the spring trial against Ratko Mladic in The Hague, and the 1990s post-Yugoslav genocide.
However, Montenegro's Rambo sang this week about other times of crisis:
«Euro neuro, don't be dogmatic, bureaucratic
You need to become pragmatic
To stop climate change automatic
Need contribution from the institution
To find solutions for pollution
To save the children of evolution. ”
This is how the end-rhyme enthusiast Rambo chats, from the donkey's back in the video to his song. A song that was considered as the strangest Grand Prix contribution of the year. But the song is no stranger than what is happening now in today's Europe, where the days of the euro can be spoken and where a continuous earthquake moves beneath our feet.
Euro diagnosis
Or as Rambo tells Time Magazine:
"I have no cure. Only one diagnosis. 'Euro Neuro' is a diagnostic song with therapeutic side effects. " He began his career as a Communist-critical freedom singer in Yugoslavia and can be compared to both Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.
And Europe's diagnosis became even clearer this week. In Rambo Amadeus' hometown of Belgrade, the Serbs could join the ranks of people who have wanted new leadership as a solution to the European crisis. There are so many sick countries in Europe now. Former ultra-nationalist, now apparently "only" nationalist, Tomislav "Toma" Nikolić (60) won the election ahead of the president for eight years, Boris Tadić (54).
Nikolić was not only Deputy Prime Minister under Slobodan Milošević from 1999 to 2000. Serbia's new president was also the acting leader of the extreme right-wing Serbia's Radical Party from 2003 to 2008, before starting his new party Serbia's Progressive Party. Not to mention what he was involved in during the Bosnia war from 1992 to 1995.
Nikolić says in his victory speech that Serbia will continue on the European road. But we will not go back until 2007 before the man in a post spoke out for Milošević's old idea of joining forces with Russia and Belarus. This is to "stand together against the hegemony of the US and the EU". It is probably a rather schizophrenic historical figure that now takes five years in Andrićev Venac, the street that is Serbia's answer to Downing Street.
Changing Light
But it was the economy that was most important to Nikolić victory day. And it is the economy that seems to get more and more Europeans voting for extreme change. A desire that leads them away from the middle of politics into the flanks.
As we saw with right-wing populist Marine Le Pen's 6,4 million turnout in the April presidential election. Or the Greeks' Nazi, ominous extremist flirtation in the May 6 parliamentary elections. The right-wing party Gyllent Daggry used food distribution to the Athens poor as election campaign strategy, not unlike Egyptian Salafist election strategies.
The large movements towards new parties need not just be a bad sign for a democratic Europe. Democracies are being put to the test, and the Gordian knot of Athens in Athens may seem unbeatable. But the crisis has also brought new exciting players, new social movements that can step into politics:
In Greece, Syriza has emerged as a serious and alternative power challenger. The dark and pink, plus green, coalition of 37-year-old civil engineer Alexis Tsipras seems to be taking the selfish power of stock capitalism and financial elite seriously, with the goal of being able to truly challenge it.
Spreading the green, it is understandable that young and old SVers are titling the Syriza gang as their sisters. At the June elections, Syriza could become the largest Greek party. Writer Michel Bauwens has pointed out another important newcomer to the European party landscape, a possible alliance partner: Pirate parties have emerged all over the world since their inception in Sweden and are now found in over 40 countries. Work is also started on start-ups in Norway.
The Pirate Party has made great progress in Germany, and new measurements this week showed that they stood at 11 percent support nationally. In particular, Bauwen sees several similar interests between the pirate parties, the green parties, the trade union movement and various social-liberal parties. He believes "a new progressive majority can be created around free culture, respect for nature and its limitations, the need for social justice and free ethical entrepreneurship – all of which can create a new political majority for social change".
So in the shadow of the extreme election results, the economic crisis and unemployment, the opportunity for an innovative, sustainable and refreshing solution-oriented process can also begin. With new voices for this century.
Democracy euphoria
In the European border country, on the southern Mediterranean, the Egyptians are ready for their new start. The first round of presidential elections was held peacefully on Wednesday, May 23. 50 million voters in the country, who got rid of their dictator Hosni Mubarak in February last year, could finally vote freely.
There was a euphoric mood on Wednesday, when the people finally got to choose their leader. Second round of elections in June will determine the final victor, purely apart from the Egyptian people, then.
Montenegro's Rambo Amadeus did not make it to the second round. He was not allowed to bring his donkey on stage in Baku – the Trojan donkey version did not convince Europe. An overall Grand Prix Europe will therefore not hear his diagnosis with curative side effects in Saturday's grand finale.
Sin. But then we can hope that Europe's political solution, on the contemporary economic knot of our time, can be found outside the world of music. ■
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 25.05.2012. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)
