Good morning! Why did the “chancellor’s portal” wake up after a little longer hibernation and sow hatred in all directions, some towards Croats, some towards Albanians? I think I know the answer.
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Where does IN4S hysteria come from?
Yesterday, Mayor Injac made a gesture of respect. She ordered the removal of shameful and inciting graffiti, the meaning of which we wrote about yesterday. Such a move should be supported and welcomed regardless of political differences.
Many Serbian nationalists who are in power with Europe Now and Ms. Injac do not look favorably on such a move. Among the first to show frustration was the “chancellor’s portal” IN4S, which, among others, was founded by the chancellor of the University of Montenegro. The information portal IN4S is an extreme Serbian nationalist portal that broadcasts messages from official Belgrade and radical currents within the Serbian security sector in Montenegro. In addition, this portal serves as a megaphone of Kremlin propaganda, so it also has its own correspondent on the battlefield in Ukraine, who every now and then publishes a selfie with one of Kadyrov’s generals or reports from Wagner headquarters. Since the change of government in 2020, a significant source of income for this portal has been public funds in Montenegro, so state enterprises managed by DF, Democrats and URA are advertised on it.
The period marking the “Storm” is a period when tensions are purposefully raised by activities on social networks and propaganda in the regime’s Belgrade media, and then there is an outbreak of hatred throughout the Serbian World. This is how these days IN4S draws targets for Croatian politician Adrian Vuksanovic, as well as Albanians, whom he calls Shqi**ar like his colleagues from Informer.
However, the reason for this behavior of IN4S should be found in another fact, which is that in July, according to data from Similarweb, it was overtaken by the third most popular portal in Montenegro – Borba, owned by Drazen Zivkovic, the editor of Pro-Vucic’s Prva TV in Montenegro.
Borba unequivocally follows the narrative of the Democratic Front and Vucic, and the portal is a party task – both when the Front should be supported and when the other Serbs from Europe Now and Democrats should be blackened. IN4S has softened its position a lot and is careful not to step on anyone in the new government. On the advice of well-intentioned people from outside and the chancellor’s entourage, it tried to distance itself from nationalist narrative, but it was difficult.
The chancellor is politically closer to Europe Now, and he brought Filip Ivanovic to the University, for whom he created an Institute for Progressive Studies, no less than that. It is an open secret that the chancellor forces a moderate public discourse, bearing in mind that he himself is a supporter of the “soft” and not the “hard” power of Russia and Serbia. This means that the goals are the same, but that the chancellor chooses a diplomatic approach to achieve those goals, while DF only knows the language of force.
In the business of tabloid portals, such moderation is not tolerated and that is why the popularity of IN4S is declining while Borba’s is growing.
Unable to stop the decline in readership, these days IN4S again resorts to extremism and returns to its old traditions when they denied the genocide, and were a platform for misogyny, homophobia and attacks on dissenters. It has become emboldened and is attacking Europe Now a bit, risking to be left without financial support with the arrival of Spajic. That is why it fears the removal of graffiti by Mayor Injac. It can easily happen that someone “paints them over” too, because the extremists are all dealt with when the levers of power are taken over. When the power is taken over, the ship does not rock but calms down and positions are maintained. IN4S is a skeleton from the closet to the chancellor, Europe Now and Democrats, and it may very quickly happen that they sweep it deep under the carpet in the coming period.
That’s it for today. See you tomorrow at the same place, at the same time.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
