Following a vandal incident in Sarajevo's Ferhadija, in which shop windows were smeared with red paint and "4S" symbols were drawn, the Republic of Srpska produced the well-known political choreography: before the investigation even began to provide answers, the political leadership of RS had already offered a ready-made interpretation of the event, its motive, historical context and civilizational significance.

Sowing hatred

RS Prime Minister Savo Minić claimed it was a "vandal incident directed at Serbian capital in Sarajevo", assessing the incident as an attempt at "intimidation and spreading hatred". SNSD delegate Radovan Kovačević went a step further, asking whether the event represented "an announcement of a new Crystal Night in Sarajevo", linking the incident to both 1914 and 1992, evoking images of marking Serbian houses and apartments. SNSD MP Miroslav Vujičić concluded that "Sarajevo has shown it has no tolerance for Serbs".

As expected, Milorad Dodik went the furthest. He claimed that "Sarajevo's hatred toward Serbia, the Republic of Srpska and Serbs is stronger than economic interest and desire for cooperation", linking the event to "the darkest periods of European history", with a message that such things "will not stop". He even called on companies from Serbia and the Republic of Srpska to leave Sarajevo.

All of this was said at a time when the public still knew virtually nothing: neither who was behind the incident, nor what its motive was, nor whether there was even a political or national background to the entire event.

And then came a detail that makes the entire construction almost grotesque. The head of Stari Grad Municipality Irfan Čengić announced that the business premises were not owned by Serbian firms, that the tenant was not of Serbian nationality, and that it was an Italian brand. In other words, the political and media machinery from RS had produced an entire narrative about the persecution of Serbs based on assumptions that very quickly began to fall apart under the weight of elementary facts.

But facts in such situations are anyway not decisive. Their function is mostly decorative. Because this is not about a few graffiti and spilled paint. This is about a political technology that has persisted for years on the same principle: every incident in Sarajevo must be presented as a symptom of deep and systemic hatred toward Serbs, regardless of the actual circumstances of the event. An isolated case immediately transforms into a collective diagnosis, and an individual incident into proof of alleged historical inevitability.

Such rhetoric is not just irresponsible. It is deeply cynical. In a country that has behind it war experience, mass crimes and a permanently traumatized society, invoking the "Crystal Night", 1914 and 1992 is not political thoughtlessness, but conscious manipulation of fear emotions. It is an attempt to keep the public in a state of permanent threat, because it is precisely from that sense of fear that part of the political scene derives its own legitimacy.

Scavenging over scavengers

It is paradoxical that those same people who for years banalize war crimes, relativize historical facts and maintain ethnic paranoia as the dominant form of political communication, today act as concerned guardians of tolerance and coexistence.

Of course, every vandal act should be condemned and investigated. If it turns out that national hatred toward Serbs is behind it all, those responsible must be sanctioned. But serious politics exists precisely so that in sensitive moments it calms society, insists on facts and refuses hysteria as a way of political action.

Here the opposite happened. Before the investigation was completed, historical traumas were already invoked, collective wounds were opened and an atmosphere of almost existential threat was constructed. The incident served as raw material for new fear production.

And that is precisely where the biggest problem lies. Not in a few hooligans with a can of paint, but in a political culture that turns every incident into moral panic, every fool into a political manifesto, and every social disturbance into a new opportunity for trading in collective fear.