The cheapening of a large number of products is proof of the government’s concern for the budget of Serbian citizens, which was greeted with derision by part of the opposition. Their target was the Parisian as a paradigm of the measures taken by governments all over the Old Continent in the fight against imported inflation, and for that everywhere, except in Serbia, they receive the support of that part of the professional and political public that is otherwise critical of the government. The decision on the date of the extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia has not yet been made, but the campaign has begun in earnest. One of the main topics will be the standard of living of citizens. The government accepted the gauntlet and responded to the challenge that one of the more important issues before the elections should be inflation. Most of the opposition once again missed the chance to offer their economic measures, so they commented in an ironic and humorous way on the decisions implemented by the executive power.
To what extent can economic topics stand side by side with state and national ones, such as Kosovo, in the election campaign? That this will be the case this time could be concluded when President Vučić announced about ten days ago the lowering of the prices of certain foodstuffs, among which the symbol became the Parisian. In his address from the Presidency of Serbia, the president had a basket from the store next to him, from which he took out yogurt, apple juice, potatoes, and the Parisian one attracted the most attention. The cheapening of this particular salami “set fire” to social networks. Critics of the regime have forgotten that the standard of living of the citizens has always been one of the dominant election topics, and now it is especially gaining weight due to the rise in prices caused above all by the war in northern Europe.
Speaking about the products at a “better price” and the reactions to the reduction of pariser, the President of Serbia emphasized that pariser is good and that in his youth he ate it almost every day while playing sports. “I ate Parisier as a boy literally every day.” Mother and father leave us a little money, and my brother and I divide half the bread into quarters, when there is enough for mayonnaise, but there was always some salami, which was of much worse quality than the one today”, explained the president in a guest appearance on TV. Pink. In this regard, he referred to the writings of some media on the day when the action “Better price – price for the people” came into force.
“The first day it was – no one will eat that disgusting parisian.” Even the puppies won’t eat that. And then I found out the next day how they changed the plate, when they realized that the manufacturer of that Parisizer was Miroslav Mišković, who I guess is a great friend of theirs. And then they put the title – ‘Citizens still buy delicatessen only by the gram’. “Suddenly, it went from dog food to a delicacy,” said Vučić. The most criticism came from the pro-European opposition, which claimed that the president was selling fog and that he was insulting citizens with that discount. But this was talked about by those for whom Parisian is not on the menu, who have money to buy better quality food and who will not taste this, which is “sold” by Vučić.
And in that you can see the difference between the government and this part of the opposition, which does not understand that, due to the privileges they once had when they were part of the government, and today when they are members of parliament, there are poorer people in Serbia and that not all of them can provide for themselves or their loved ones. they can afford a “heavy” meal of more than a thousand dinars. They don’t understand that whatever they said, they only tried to make the taste of Parisier bitter which is used by quite a few people. And when President Vučić starts with the promotion and demonstration of a cheap Parisian breakfast, the critical public rises up and shoots sharp arrows as if every day it is taking its mouth off in order not to feed the poorest.
The director of the public opinion research agency “Faktor plus” Vladimir Pejić says that what Vučić did was a very well thought-out marketing move. He says for “Politica” that the aim of those measures is to stabilize the market, because political messages have an impact on the economy and have an impact on the electorate as well. “More and more people are using these products, and it’s all good for people.” The opposition’s mistake is that they got caught up in that story, and I don’t think the goal was to throw a hook at them and make them jump, but critics of the government reacted rather hastily and inexperienced. They came to a situation where by making fun of Parisians, they are actually making fun of a part of the citizens. Any cheapening, even if it seems banal, is commendable and the opposition should not deal with it in that way”, says Pejić. He states that the opposition should not fight against it and be against these proposals because no one with common sense will be against it. They should come out with their proposals, say that when they come to power, there will be lower prices for more products and “more important items”.
Marketing expert Nebojša Krstić says that the price reduction of foodstuffs announced by the President of Serbia has caused more negative reactions in part of the media and political public than any price increase in the last few years. For “Politics”, he says that it is a paradox, but someone, analyzing it, will draw conclusions about the rise in the standard of living, which, it seems, we have gotten used to to the extent that we no longer notice it. “Especially when it comes to the elite (some would say quasi-elite) part of society. The editor of NIN, Ćulibrk, in a TV show lashed out at the president ‘offering him to eat a Parisian’, and expressed his suspicion that the Parisian is of poor quality, so he invited Vučić to be the first to try that product from the list of those whose price was reduced . It seems to me that after that the Parisian became a topic of topics. The ‘independent media’ got hold of it like a drunkard and they started publishing columns, written compositions, essays and reviews in which each author tried to explain how much he is superior and how disgusted he is with cheap food”, says Krstić and adds that one from a guest on N1 triumphantly concluded that even her dogs refuse to eat Parisier.
“It is possible that they are used to sushi or Japanese Kobe beef, but the hysteria has reached a boiling point, the price reduction campaign has received free advertising, products with a better price have been looted in supermarkets, and the social and political scene has once again stratified into snobbish, i.e. quasi-elitist part and on normal people caught by this paroxysm of consciousness disorder”, says Krstić. He adds that the action heated up with free advertising given to it by “disturbed” media and political workers. He says that there is no better thing in marketing than when an action goes beyond the scope of advertising space and goes to TV shows, to the front pages of newspapers and to transfer “from mouth to mouth”. “The consequences of this unusual phenomenon will be that media ‘elitists’ and their associated opposition will give pejorative names to the party (or parties) in power, e.g. “Parisian coalition”, thinking that they are doing them harm, while it will also bring a higher rating to the “victims”, concludes Nebojša Krstić.
Professor Zoran Stojiljković says that there is an ongoing battle for the votes of the poorest people and that the opposition is once again missing the chance to get closer to those categories of people. For our paper, he says that the price reductions are a sign that the election campaign has started and that, as often as we have elections, it seems as if we do not get out of political agitations and that this is a constant here. “In my opinion, everything that is happening is a balance of powerlessness between the government and the opposition, which obviously changed its tactics because it realized that it could not force the government to fulfill the demands set at the beginning of May.” The government is having problems due to high inflation and is raising these social-economic issues and now specific groups are being given help. “In order to increase the minimum wage, one-time assistance is given to pensioners, the prices of certain products are reduced, which is attributed to Vučić’s government, and not to the power and strength of the trade unions”, says Zoran Stojiljković.
