The Duran Podcast - Vucic and dangers of EU in Serbia

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Vucic and dangers of EU in Serbia

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening in Serbia, and we have more protests. And this time around, the protests are, at least they appear to be very violent or much more violent than the protests we saw in previous months. Yes. And these protests are actually lasting for quite a while now, these violent protests with the police out on the streets. and they're dealing with the protesters who are aiming for the Vuchic government, the Vich administration, at least that's the narrative that we're getting. What are your thoughts on what is happening in Serbia? And the protests are mostly concentrated in Belgrade and Novi Sad at the moment.

But if anyone is watching from Serbia, I don't know if they've spread to other cities and towns. but that's where the concentration of these protests are taking place. I mean, I think that this has a complex origin in the sense that I think that the original student protests that began against Wuchich some time ago, you remember there was the collapse of the bridge, and there was a lot of anger, and there was talk about corruption. I think there was an awful lot of genuine anger against Wuchich, and I suspect many of those protests were originally completely spontaneous. is. But this is what always happens. You have protests. They're big, they're peaceful. Vuchich, as he always

does, weaves and tries to accommodate some of the complaints of the protesters, the prime minister, I think, stepped down, that kind of thing. It looked for a time as if the protests were ebbing. But what you can see happen is as the protests numerically start to diminish in size, the outside powers, and I have no doubt that this is the case now, start to become involved. The fewer protesters there are, the more radical the protesters are, the more they are no doubt. I have no doubt about this, under some degree of influence and control from interested outsiders and the more violent the protests become. It is exactly the same pattern that I remember from the 2013-2014 protests in Ukraine. So the origins may be different, but this process is evolving in the same direction.

It's becoming more violent. It's becoming more radical. It is intended to undermine and destabilize the government, the entire governmental structure in Serbia. And it's in this case, I have no doubt at all, what we're seeing now is a color revolution attempt that's now evolving. And by the way, I would say there's also been mounting pressure simultaneously on the government, the Serb government in Bosnia, Bosnia, and the leader there has been forced to step down, and the government there has been basically dissolved. Remember, Bosnia is basically a NATO protectorate, so you can see the pressure is mounting.

Yeah. Peter Siarto, the Foreign Minister of Hungary agrees with a few of your assessment. He actually says that there's regime change operations spearheaded by the European Union against Serbia, against Slovakia, as well as Hungary. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think he's absolutely right. I mean, it's exactly what I think. I mean, in fact, I mean, the whole thing follows exactly the same pattern, as I said, that we've seen before. We've seen this happen so many times now that it's not difficult to recognize it. Now, I'm good to say a few things. I'm not in Serbia. I know that there is a lot of anger against Wuchich. I know a lot of people have little time for him. I'm not a huge supporter or fan of Wurchich. My own sense, though, my own guess is that Serbia, people in Serbia who already have been through one color revolution, which is the one that followed after the NATO bombing war, and which

led to the fall of Milosevic, I think there are too many people in Serbia who remember that, and there are too many people in Serbia who can see through this. This is a very tough, very sophisticated society. And I suspect that in the end, Vurches, who is a survivor, will pull through and that we will probably see a certain degree of consolidation, even by people who don't like him, around him, precisely because they sense they realize that this is a color revolution attempt and will act to stop it. That is what I think, of course, I am not there on the ground. It may be that the anger against Voucher is so widespread that this will indeed.

spread and it will get out of control. But this is my initial calculation about this. Now, Vuchich needs to remember what happened to Yanukovych in Ukraine. Yanukovych was in a very similar situation positioned to Vujic in that he too had a lot of popularity in Ukraine. But the initial protests against him were fairly narrow, narrowly based. And as it evolved into a color revolution attempt, the protests against Yanukovych also narrowed as well and became increasingly limited to a relatively small group of people. There were attempts to organize general strikes in Ukraine at that time, 2013 and 2014, which were failed, failed. And of course, the police and security forces remained loyal to Yanukovych.

The reason the color revolution attempt in Ukraine ultimately succeeded is because Yanukovych made the massive mistake of continuously making concessions to the protesters and trying to win them over. If Vutish goes down the same path, then I think he's probably going to lose control. If, on the other hand, he says this is a color revolution attempt, I'm going to stand firm against this. I think probably the police, the security forces, will remain loyal to him. And I suspect at that point, most of Serb society will unite behind him and he will see it off. But it really depends an awful lot of him.

He's a very flawed, deeply compromised man. He's made many attempts at various times to keep on good terms with the European Union. He ought to look at the much more skillful way in which the Georgians handled the protests against them that took place last year. He ought to learn from them, not follow Gannukovych's exercise. But we'll see what happens. I would say he should also look at Lukashenko and Belarus. Absolutely. Lukashenko and Belarus.

Exactly. Because, you know, when you say that Vucic, that Yanukovych, that Yanukovych made concessions to the protesters, I mean, I read that as you saying that Yanukovych actually made concessions to the European Union, to the United States, and to Newland. Right? And that was Yanukovych's great downfalls. He was trying to please Russia. as well as the European Union.

He didn't get along with Putin. There's that the misinformation that they were buddies. That's nonsense. They really didn't like each other. At least Putin did not think very highly of Yanukovych at all. But that's more collective West misinformation. But nonetheless, you know, Yanukovych, in the style of Lukashenko at the time, people forget the way Lukashenko was operating at that time.

And in very much the same way, it's not exactly. the same way. Obviously, Serbia is in a much, much different position. Some might say an even more difficult position given their geography. But there's this narrative of the leader caught between the European Union, the West and the East and Russia and Bricks, if you want to call it that. And they try to walk that tightrope and please both sides. Yanukovic made the fatal mistake of making concessions to the European Union and to the United States and to Newland as she was passing out cookies and bread on the Maidan. Lukashenko, he decided to go all in with Russia, especially after 2020 when the EU.

He was making concessions to the EU. Up until 2020, the elections, Lukashenko was making a ton of concessions to the European Union. He was actually pissing off the Russians. People forget this about Lukashenko. And what did the EU do? What did the globalists do? They said, you know what? We're going to regime change you anyway. Exactly. And it was that betrayal from the West that finally pushed Lukashenko into the arms of Russia, fully into the arms of Russia.

Would you not say that Vuchitsch, Serbia is in the same position? Maybe more difficult, given their geography, at least with Belarus. You know, Belarus is there and they have a much tighter history with Russia going back through the Soviet Union, et cetera. I mean, it was a more natural and easier trajectory for Lukashenko to move towards Russia's position. Serbia, Vuchitsch, that's a bit more difficult. It is much more difficult. But fundamentally, I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, what Lukashenko did by trying to work with the European Union is that he allowed them into Belarus in effect. And of course, the result was that they did all the things that they usually do.

They financed NGOs and all those various groups in Belarus. And that created the network, which was then activated to try to overthrow him. The lesson that you have to learn if you want to survive this is that you close these people down. You don't let them into, you don't let them through the door. You keep them out. And if you have let them in, you close them down. You pass the various laws to enable you to do that. And you dismantle this NGO and all that kind of apparatus.

And then if you do still get a colour revolution protest, you take an absolutely strong line against it. I mean, I don't mean by that, by the way, that you go and do terrible and unnecessary things, which not only are wrong in themselves, but which will inflame wider society and turn it against you. But you don't compromise and you don't give up control of the streets. If you start doing that, then that's a huge mistake. Now, the problem Bouchich has is not only is Serbia surrounded on all sides by European Union territory, which of course Belarus was not. But of course, there is within Serbia itself, as there was within Ukraine,

a very strong oligarchic, I'm a business oligarchic type block of people. who are in part Vouchish's financial backers, who have always advocated for stronger connections with the European Union and against connections with Russia. The same was true of Yanukovych, by the way. I mean, Yanukovych was largely funded by a Ukrainian oligarch who was a very, very strong supporter of Ukraine's integration into the EU. and who is still a very, very powerful figure in Ukraine to this day.

So this is why Vucic is closer in some respects to Yanukovych than he is to Lukashenko. Because Lukashenko never allowed oligarchic blocks like that to develop in Belarus. So this is the fundamental, the fundamental difference. Now whether Wutche could pull it off, whether he could survive. He survived many challenges at many times. This time remains to be seen. He has these powerful financial interests in Serbia, which I suspect he is wary of going against

and which, as I said, financially support him. That is one thing. He's also repeatedly shown that like Yanukovych, he wants to play the Euro. Europeans off against the Russians. He thinks that he can get a better deal that way. He thinks that will provide it with some kind of insurance, which, of course, it never does. He's allowed the NGO apparatus to develop in Serbia. By the way, it's always existed there since Milosevic's time.

It's never been dismantled. No, it's there. I mean, I go off in a name. Yeah, absolutely. It's in front of me. You walk on the streets and you can see the EU. organizations. Absolutely.

It's never been dismantled in the way that it was in Belarus and is being dismantled in Georgia. So I mean, this is a major problem. Against that, as I said, Serbia is a tough, sophisticated, educated, educated society. When I say educated, I mean, it's been educated in the recent history. I mean, you know, the breakup of Yugoslavia, all of the things that happened there. And I suspect that if Vujic were to stand firm now, he would be able to rally significant forces within Yugoslav, of Serbian society. Even though, as I said, I think many of the people who would rally to him don't especially like him. But they understand that, you know, flawed, compromised, corrupt, though he might be, he's still a lot better.

than what would come. Yeah, he's, I mean, my sense of it is that he's extremely unpopular, at least in the major cities, cities. I mean, Belgrade, being a major city of the capital, he's not popular at all. I don't know how it is outside of Belgrade, but I mean, he obviously has a base of support in Serbia in the cities. Not at all, but, you know, you're right. the the NGO EU presence in Serbia is it's there.

It's in your face when you walk around, at least when you walk around Belgrade, you see it everywhere. And much the same way that you see it in Georgia in Tbilisi. Yes. Yes. Even though Georgia's trying to dismantle it. Yes.

You walk in the streets and it's in your face, the NGO EU stuff. And their graffiti is all over the place. And their graffiti is all over, all over to Belisi. And very aggressive it is. well. And interestingly enough, it's mostly in English, by the way, which tells you a great deal about the allegiances of these people and who is mostly intended to impress. But anyway,

that's problems with Serbia. I mean, I'm far from sure that Vuchich is going to see this off, actually. He's compromised. He is, to some extent, I think, involved in corruption. I don't want to say more than I know because I don't know how corrupt or not he actually is. But it seems to me he is compromised. He's not got full control of Serbia. So it might succeed. It really depends on how he plays it from this point onwards and how Serbian society in general reacts. I would just add one other thing that the reason this is happening now, I am sure,

is partly because events in Ukraine are now causing growing alarm in Brussels. And they worry that Russian influence in Ukraine is going to be restored very soon. So they want to sort out the unfinished business in the Balkans before that happens. You're exactly right. But just end the video. I'll give one advantage that Serbia has. Not so much Vuchic, but one advantage. but one advantage that Serbia and the Serbian people have, which is that at least now they have,

it looks like they have the backing and the support of Hungary and Slovakia, because they're pretty much in the same position in a way. So I don't know if those three countries can come together to see off the regime change that is happening from the globalist and from the EU. But that is an advantage, especially from the geography standpoint of things. I completely agree. I entirely agree. Yeah. All right.

I mean, Yugoslavia, oh, sorry, Ukraine, by contrast, was actually quite isolated. It didn't have, there was obviously Russia, but as you correctly said, Yanukovych had a very bad relation. He actually had an extremely bad relationship with Putin. This is, again, a massive misunderstanding about the actual relationship with Yanukovych and Putin. Yanukovych was much more isolated than Vouchish's.

Ruchis does have the support of Slovakia and Hungary because they know perfectly well that if he falls there next. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right, we will end the video there. The durand.locals.com. We are on X and on Telegram and Rumble and go to Durand shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There is a link in the description box down below. Take care.