Originally Published on Balkanist (http://balkanist.net/belgrade-pride-2014-where-there-is-a-need-there-is-tolerance/) After this year’s peaceful Pride Parade, it will be difficult for the Serbian state to cite “security risks” as a reason to ban it.
On September 28th, it appeared that Belgrade finally shook off the violent images associated with the 2010 Pride Parade. Unlike that year, when the Pride was followed by riots that destroyed significant parts of the city, the 2014 Belgrade Pride – the first of its kind after three consecutive years of last-minute bans – went on without any major incidents. In a peaceful and colorful bubble protected by 7,000 riot policemen, a group comprised of one thousand LGBT people, their friends and allies took to the streets. With the mayor of Belgrade, some opposition politicians and four ministers present, it may have been tempting to conclude that the tide had turned for LGBT people in Serbia, that the organizers of Pride, after three years of struggling, had finally won over the Serbian political elite, or to put it in the words of EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle, that the Pride was “a milestone in the modern history of democratic Serbia, [which marked a] substantial improvement towards the effective exercise of LGBTI rights”. However, it is more likely that the Serbian political elite does not see the point of the Belgrade Pride parade, which deeply divides Serbian society, and that they would rather the event not happen at all. As politicians’ views have not changed significantly in the last year, the question remains, “what makes 2014 different? Why can Serbia have a secure, ‘peaceful’ Pride, where it failed to do so in previous years?” One answer to this question is that Serbian politicians (and by extension its so-called “hooligans”) “tolerated” the 2014 Belgrade Pride with an eye on the bigger political goals of Serbia, i.e. its path to the EU. Throughout its history, the Belgrade Pride has always been dependent on the sensitive calculations of the political elite to balance Serbia’s EU perspective with domestic political goals (the Kosovo issue in particular, but not exclusively). After two failed attempts in 2001 and 2004, Serbian LGBT activists were encouraged enough by the adoption of EU-required anti-discrimination legislation to retry organizing Belgrade Pride in 2009. However, after threats of violence by extreme right groups and despite state assurances that the Pride Parade would receive the necessary police protection, the state decided 24 hours before the event that Pride could not happen in the center of Belgrade and should be moved to the periphery of the city. Activists interpreted this government decision as a de facto ban of Pride and a state capitulation to the extreme right, and consequently decided to cancel the event. As this first ban was met with criticisms from the EU, the pro-EU government in 2010 needed to show Serbia was serious about its “path to the EU”. The focus on security issues in the debates surrounding the 2009 Pride, furthermore, created a domestic need to maintain the Pride Parade. The government needed to regain public support by illustrating that security was being taken seriously and that the state was able to protect it citizens. The final push in favor of the 2010 Pride Parade was the fact that the government was able to use the EU pressure to externalize responsibility for Pride: it could blame the EU for the event and its consequences domestically, while in the international arena it could claim credit for allowing the Parade, which was quickly labelled the first successful Pride in Serbia. The next few years, the benefits of staging a Pride Parade did not outweigh the costs for the Serbian elites. With conflicts at the Kosovo border in 2011 and upcoming elections, the political elite did not see any benefit in supporting Belgrade pride. At the international level, the EU signalled with its positive opinion on Serbian application for membership and the prioritization of the normalization of Serbia-Kosovo relations in the enlargement strategy, that for the time being the EU would turn a blind eye to bans of the Pride Parade — as long as progress was made in other, ostensibly more important, areas. Similar calculations were made in 2012 and 2013. The EU responses to bans of the Pride Parade were rather mild, and within the enlargement process, Serbia was rewarded for it progress on the Kosovo issue, with the Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Pristina (April 2013) and the opening of accession negotiations with Serbia (January 2014) as the key turning points. Why did the Serbian government opt not to ban the Pride this year? In many ways the political situation compares to that of 2010, however, some difference on the domestic level can be discerned. At the international level, we find that just like in 2010, there has been increased pressure from the EU to proceed with Pride. After the Brussels agreement and the EU’s decision to open accession negotiations with Serbia, the European Commission for the first time explicitly condemned the Serbian government’s lack of political will to go ahead with the Pride Parade in its 2013 progress report. Additionally, in the 2013-2014 enlargement strategy paper, the EU identified LGBT rights (along with the Pride Parade) as a key priority area in the assessment of fundamental rights in candidate countries for the first time. With these two documents, European pressure on Serbia to maintain Pride in 2014 increased substantially. The attack on the German participant of an LGBT conference in Belgrade two prior to the Pride Parade intensified international focus on this year’s Pride Parade. Domestically, the political situation was favorable for a Pride Parade as well. With a landslide victory in the May elections, Prime Minister Vučić did not have to worry about any upcoming elections or any other immediate costs associated with the Pride Parade. Furthermore, the three previous bans – based on security risks – again raised questions as to whether or not the state was capable of protecting its own citizens. Contrary to 2010, when the Pride Parade was framed as an EU requirement, Vučić made this year’s event about security. Days before the event took place he said, “I respect the constitutional obligations of the state and it is my obligation to guarantee safety and security to all citizens.” Rather than externalizing responsibility for the Pride parade, the current PM made sure a successful pride would be regarded as his victory, a showcase of his ability to make Serbia a country that respects its constitution and the rule of law. At the same time, however, Vučić made it clear – most likely to reduce the political damage the Pride might have caused – that he did not necessarily support the event, emphasizing that he would not attend it and that there were more important issues for Serbia (e.g. the recent floods). The final difference between 2010 and 2014 is the lack of violence. Apart from some minor disturbances (the attack on B92’s offices and the torched bus were the worst examples), the streets of Belgrade remained peaceful. Even the protest walk after the Pride happened without any incidents (apart from homophobic and nationalistic chanting). The lack of violence again raises questions (which I cannot answer here) about the link between the Serbian state and so-called hooligans, which are used by the state as an informal security apparatus and a tool to pressure the EU. Whilst the outburst of violence and the threats to national security were beneficial for the Serbian state to pressure the EU to give Serbia more leeway on other issues (such as Kosovo; see Nielsen [2013]), such violence would not have benefitted the state this year. And indeed violence remained largely absent. Whereas Dveri (one of the right wing organizations) warned the government in May that Pride might lead to “war on the streets of Serbia”, their protests last weekend remained peaceful. 1389, another right wing organization associated with previous anti-gay attacks, even explicitly called upon protesters to refrain from violence this year. Although there is no hard evidence linking the state and these right-wing organizations, the reduced security threats and the fact that Vučić thanked those opposing the Pride Parade for refraining from engaging in violence and for their understanding of Serbia’s position in a press conference after Pride. This does suggest that the state was able to “convince” these right-wing, patriotic groups that violence would not be beneficial for Serbia or the groups themselves. (For more on this topic, see Rory Archer). In summary, it can be said that rather than allowing the Belgrade Pride, both the state and the so-called hooligans “tolerated” it for the sake of Serbia’s interests, i.e. its European Path. While this might mean that the factual victory of the Pride organizers over the State and their aggressors is only minimal, the symbolic gains are far more elaborate. In the years to come it will be difficult for the Serbian state to cite “security risks” as a reason to ban the Pride parade. The precedent created by this year’s event and continued scrutiny on the part of the EU during the accession process have de facto taken away Serbia’s only legal argument to ban Pride Parades. Therefore, it is quite likely that the Belgrade Pride will gain momentum and become a recurring annual event; that is, as long as Serbia stays committed to its EU path and the state remains capable of keeping these so-called hooligans under its control.
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Originally Published on LSE LSEE Blog (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsee/2014/09/17/belgrade-pride-2014-another-blow-to-the-head-or-will-it-go-ahead/) A recent attack has shaken Serbia’s LGBT community. Will the 2014 Belgrade Pride go ahead? Two scenarios are possible, largely depending on the pressure the EU will decide to exert. “Over the last three years, the EU seem to have turned a blind eye to the bans of the Pride Parade, as long as Serbia made progress in other, more important, matters, like the normalisation of relations with Kosovo”, writes Koen Slootmaeckers.
Last Saturday, a German participant of the international LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) conference “The future belongs to us: LGBT rights on the road to the European Union” was attacked in the centre of Belgrade. Although the perpetrators, according to witnesses, shouted, “we don’t want foreigners here”, which could point to xenophobia, the attacked was generally portrayed as a homophobic attack. The organisers of the conference decided to cancel the remainder of the programme, and held a press conference followed by a protest march through the streets of Belgrade. Although the motives of the perpetrators remain unclear, the framing of the event draws attention to the LGBT rights situation in Serbia. Furthermore, the fact that this attack occurred only two weeks before the 2014 Belgrade Pride (scheduled for 28 September) raises once again questions on whether the Pride will be held this year. The Pride Parade in Serbia has a rocky history. After almost a decade of failed attempts to organise it, the first (and only) successful Pride was held in 2010. The event was successful in the sense that none of the participants got injured – in comparison to the unsuccessful 2001 Pride, which resulted in dozens injured participants. However, the riots following the 2010 event destroyed significant parts of Belgrade leading to damages of more than one million euros. In the three following years, LGBT activists have tried to organise more Pride Parades in Belgrade. The Serbian government, on the other hand, decided every year to ban the Parade, citing threats to the national security as reason. To date, the EU reacted weakly to the Pride’s ban, by sending mixed signals to the Serbian government – this in spite of the fact that Serbia is a signatory to several international conventions, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects LGBT people from discrimination and secures the freedom of assembly, and has pledged to improve its record on human rights protection as it moves towards EU membership. Although the freedom of assembly of LGBT people is seen by the EU as a litmus test for human rights protection within Serbia, the EU in the last three years seem to have turned a blind eye to the bans of the Pride, as long as Serbia made progress in other, more important, matters, like the normalisation of relations with Kosovo. This trade-off becomes clear when we analyse the progress reports of Serbia. While the EU repeatedly regrets the ban of the pride, it is only in 2013, after the Brussels agreement was signed, that the EU Progress reports pointed out that by banning the Pride parade the Serbian government showed a lack of political will to tackle the precarious situation of LGBT people in Serbia. Furthermore, the prioritisation of LGBT rights in the 2013 enlargement strategy paper shows that now regional stability has been achieved (to a certain extent) the EU can finally start focussing on other issues, like LGBT rights. At the domestic level, similar trade-offs were made. Whilst allowing the Pride parade to take place in 2010 was advantageous for the Serbian government to show that it was serious about ‘Serbia’s path to the EU’, the political costs in subsequent years where simply deemed too high. In 2011, the government was concerned with the conflicts at the Kosovar border and upcoming elections. Holding a Pride in these conditions would have been politically too costly, as PM Dačić made clear in his statement that “[i]n the situations where aggression in Northern Kosovo can begin at any moment, […] the gay pride [is] the last thing we need”. The 2011 Pride ban did not alter the EC’s opinion on Serbia’s candidacy, while Kosovo remained the key priority in the EU membership negotiation process. Serbia drew its lesson, and made the same calculation in 2012 and 2013. With regards to the 2014 pride, a few questions remain: Will the Serbian government make a similar calculation for the upcoming 2014 pride? Or did the Brussels agreement and the increased scrutiny of the EU on LGBT rights make banning the pride too politically costly? And more importantly, how will the recent attack influence the government’s decision on the 2014 pride? Regarding the last question, two scenarios are possible, the one more unlikely than the other. First, the Serbian government might use this attack to justify the security threats and decide to ban the pride. The second scenario is that due to the attack, pressure by the EU and Germany to hold the Pride will increase, and that the parade will become a Serbia’s symbolic statement to show its readiness for the EU accession negotiations. However, statements of both Serbian and German officials in the last couple of days make the first scenario increasingly unlikely. The German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy Christoph Straesser already stated during the conference on Friday that the Pride parade would be a very strong signal to the EU. During a meeting with PM Vučić the day after the attack, Straesser reiterated that a safe and successful Pride would have a tremendous meaning for Serbia. Vučić, on the other hand, stressed in an official statement that the state would do everything to ensure the protection of human rights. He, furthermore, said in an interview that “we have shown that the state seriously opposes and fights against xenophobia and homophobia. We will see in the weeks ahead how successful have we been on this front,” suggesting that the Pride will go ahead. A decision, however, has not been made so far. Although the odds for a 2014 Belgrade Pride were already more favourable compared to last year, the attack on the German LGBT activist increased international scrutiny, increasing pressure on Serbia to hold the Pride and show its commitment to the EU and the protection of human rights, including those of LGBT people. |
Dr Koen SlootmaeckersSenior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London. Writes about LGBT politics In Serbia. Archives
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