Nemanja Starović, Serbia’s Minister of European Integration, laid out how Western governments are falling into the trap of being labeled “illiberal democracies” for carrying out the “genuine will of the people” versus going woke and perpetuating “undemocratic liberalism” in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Saturday.
Starović, who previously served as state secretary of the Balkan nation’s Ministry of Defense and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shared his insight on the problems faulting modern democracies with Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Recounting a conversation over dinner from one night of Boyle’s recent journalistic visit to Serbia, Starović restated his explanation for the listeners.
“The system of liberal democracy, as it was envisioned during the time of the American Revolution, developed over the 19th century, and became dominant in the Western world in the 20th century, actually dissolved right before our eyes,” the minister stated.
Liberal democracy did not cease to exist, he clarified, “but it actually diverged.”
Instead of being destroyed, Starović argued that the political system actually “bifurcated into two separate directions — sometimes very much opposed ideological setups.”
“One, being the so-called ‘illiberal democracy,’ which is actually a derogatory term invented by those who wanted to name and shame the countries whose leadership — whose governments — decided to challenge these dogmas of progressive liberalism,” he told Boyle, before listing “woke culture,” “mass migration,” and “climate catastrophe narratives” as examples of philosophies pushed by Western governments.
According to Starović, whatever nations challenge this ideology have been “shamed as being illiberal democracies.”
He continued on to argue, “However, quote-unquote ‘illiberal’ it may be, the illiberal democracy as a system is still a democracy because it is based upon the genuine will of the people translated through fair and democratic elections, and that is the definition of democracy itself.”
Giving credit to President Donald Trump, the Serbian official said the American leader has been pursuing “common sense” policies since his first term in office, but “even to a larger extent right now.”
“This alternate part is much more dangerous, and I call it undemocratic liberalism,” Starović continued, explaining the other side of the coin. “And that is what we are seeing across the Western world today. We see it in Western Europe. We have seen it develop in the USA until President Trump decided to move things in a different direction.”
Undemocratic liberalism, in the minister’s words, means “the imposition of these dogmas of progressive liberalism, despite the will of the people, through the unelected institutions.”
These unelected institutions include civil society organizations, independent bodies, regulatory agencies, he said, labeling them as tools used by bad actors to “negat[e] the basic tenets of democracy.”
The perpetrators of this phenomenon are the “self-validating political elites” who are “imposing their will on common people,” Starović added.
“In theory, you know, the rule by the elite may not necessarily be a bad thing, but the problem is that these self-validating elites across the Western world are actually harboring despise,” he concluded his argument. “They’re despising the common people.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.