Most recent surveys agree in one thing at least - the citizens' interest in the upcoming parliamentary elections, just like in the recent presidential ballot, is still kept at high levels. The question is, however, how and in with what the parties, the most influential ones, at least, respond to the citizens' heightened readiness to participate in public affairs.
The party offerings in the campaign again adhere blindly to formulas intended to lure the voters, instead of better understanding their aspirations and more contemporary needs of Serbian society. Kostunica, for instance, who initiated the new elections, builds everything on the thesis that Kosovo could be returned within Serbia's borders, only if the people and coalition partners in the current government would understand him better. And he'll deal with Europe and the UN, he says, easily, once he manages to renew the talks on the subject. This is not only a fatal misconception, but an open attempt to cheat or corrupt voters with fake promises. And the inevitable thing that happens when people insist on exclusivity was engendered: bloody riots erupted in Kosovska Mitrovica, for which the prime minister and his Democratic Party of Serbia were mostly responsible. There has hardly been any other event that managed to distance us so far away from Europe and to destabilize Serbia like this one did.
Other bids demonstrate also that larger parties are prisoners to antiquated prejudice and the constant habit to bamboozle. What radicals present as their program is actually primitive populism - better living is offered lavishly, spanning from child care in kindergartens to secure jobs, with construction sites springing up everywhere - a blooming future, to say the least. They fail to provide a realistic foundation for the fantasies that basically boil down to the model of omnipotent state, familiar to us from our earlier history. Radicals' rather stale story that they will eradicate crime and disperse thieves has this time taken its most bizarre form. Toma Nikolic publicly suggested that the police should work on commission!
There is, however, something else that the powerful parties fail to observe, or prevent, for that sake - Serbia, especially after presidential elections, has become a dangerous and

violent country. Hooligans, grudging about Tadic's victory, freely demolished and burned foreign embassies, robbed and plundered stores, prevented rallies of those who think differently. People are again branded as enemies, independent journalists and the media are persecuted, judges and witnesses are publicly threatened or spectacularly murdered, radicals are openly threatening our Hungarians, if Hungary recognizes Kosovo. Many are now prone, because of justified fears, to say that our present is much like Milosevic's time. It is far from that, of course, but there are things that indicate we are living a kind of degenerated "anti-bureaucratic revolution". Where are we sliding to as a society and why are these issues neglected in the election campaigns, apart from rare exceptions? How will the parties that aspire

to democratic governance bring us back to normal? And if they fail to do that, the elections and the campaign will only turn into a big scam.
Today even a child would know that, what with the inherited and the newly created tails, we can hardly join Europe. Our parties are in this electoral campaign again utterly exhausting themselves in search of coalition partners, and are less concerned with identifying Serbia's current and lasting interests. It is more important to them to bring to perfection the organization and technology of governance, instead of truly embracing the values on which governance is based. Inflation, decreased investments, production, employment, crimes and cooperation with the Hague tribunal, the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the society - it all falls into the background and is mentioned rarely or never. The same applies for foreign policy, which we have no idea as to how it is managed and what is our strategy for cooperation with the world. Who is stronger now: those who will take us to Europe or those who, with all their unreasonable narrow-mindedness, are dragging us into Russia's shadow?
With all these meanderings we have frequent elections, but few reassuring solutions.