How Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic sees the world

"They threw everything they had at us [until] there were no more chairs to hurl at each other, Vucic recounted in a magazine interview 20 years later. Dinamo supporters then stampeded the pitch, where their team jumped into the fray, assaulting police officers, and the game was officially called off before it began."

"It was already a conflict between Serbs and Croats, not Red Star and Dinamo fans, Vucic explained in the same interview. Football is always just a reflection of what is happening in society. Maksimir exemplified the toxic nationalism and football hooliganism that have shadowed Vucic's rise to dominate Serbian politics."

Aleksandar Vucic, a young law student, witnessed the 1990 Maksimir Stadium riots in Zagreb between Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Zagreb fans, an event that revealed deep ethnic tensions between Serbs and Croats foreshadowing Yugoslavia's violent dissolution. The riots, involving Serbian gangster Zeljko Raznatovic and escalating into stadium violence, exemplified how football reflected broader societal conflicts. Vucic's early involvement in these events coincided with his entry into far-right politics. Over more than a decade as prime minister and subsequently as president, Vucic has maintained political dominance in Serbia while antigovernment protests continue into their second year, his rise intertwined with the toxic nationalism and hooliganism that characterized the region's turbulent transition.

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