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From civic-minded, multinational Vojvodina to patriotic, nationalist northern Serbia

Vojvodina and its capital Novi Sad had been a multicultural region that once enjoyed significant autonomy from Belgrade. Sadly, it became the consolation prize that Serbian nationalists received in exchange for an independent Kosovo. Anything that deviates from the narrow framework of Serbian nationalism is now considered separatism in Vojvodina.

The Serbian region of Vojvodina – once a civic, multicultural and economic phenomenon – is rapidly being destroyed politically. In February of last year, the region remembered 50 years since the adoption of the Constitution of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the former Yugoslavia. At that time, Vojvodina had its own judicial, legislative and executive authorities. It had its own financial revenues. Like Kosovo, Vojvodina had almost all the elements of a republic, but it was still a part of Serbia. During the 1980s, Vojvodina was one of the most developed parts of socialist Yugoslavia in terms of GDP, after Slovenia and Croatia. 

February 28, 2025 - Boris Varga - Hot TopicsIssue 1-2 2025Magazine

Photo: frantic00 / Shutterstock

The collapse of socialist Yugoslavia began in 1988 precisely from Novi Sad, when Slobodan Milošević dismissed the leadership of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. These events were called the “anti-bureaucratic revolution” or the “yogurt revolution”, because state-backed demonstrators threw packages of yogurt at Vojvodina’s administrative buildings. However, the ultimate goal of that operation was not only Vojvodina, but control over Kosovo. Two years later, Milošević abolished the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo, which led to the independence of Slovenia and the outbreak of war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The wars in the former Yugoslavia, in which Serbia was largely the aggressor, changed the ethnic picture of Vojvodina during the 1990s. National minorities fled the war and military mobilization. 

Takeover 

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