Luka Maksimović used to play football for 6 years at Mladenovac Forestlanders and Belgrade Blue Dragons. And just a few days ago - he managed to collect enough signatures to be eligible to run for the president of the country.
We don't normally cover political topics, besides the ones caused by IFAF vs IFAF. however, this is just.. Too good of a story to be ignored. However, we will ignore the system in Serbia for this one though, as we would like to focus on more positive things, such as.. A 26 year old former football player winning 20% of the votes in Mladenovac, Serbia, by coming up with an alias which is mocking everything most politicians stand for - starting with corruption and nepotism. Not long after that - he announced his presidential candidacy.
Luka Maksimović used to play football for 6 years at Mladenovac Forestlanders and Belgrade Blue Dragons. He was also a member of the U19 Serbian national team. And just a few days ago - he managed to collect enough signatures to go into the presidential race.
What makes him and his campaign special is that he's surrounded by young, college graduates, who probably were never in politics before. The whole story about mocking politics is what created the buzz, starting with Luka's alias name and styling.
People got tired of the same story they were being sold, so he came in like a breath of fresh air. He managed to do what no politician was able to - to get the young and older to believe again, as well as to get the "voting abstinents" to wake up.
Now, this caused problems as well. From some of the opposition trying to tag along (where he thanked each and every single one of them on Twitter, and asked them not to support him), to the ones in charge trying to obstruct him being eligible to run for president. Also, toss in a few national media outlets putting out "exclusives" of Luka being financed by George Soros (note that the people were donating money for the fee of getting the signatures verified, not to mention - the people were bringing necessary electronics to places signatures were being collected at), and so on.
However, the crowd that's drawn to him is showing major support, and it's impossible to ignore it. And this is where the power of Internet kicks in to spread the word, as there is pretty much no budget behind this guy.
Why is Luka so interesting?
Let's start with the name he goes under. It's rather tough to do a direct translation to English, however we'll try to explain it - Ljubiša Preletačević Beli. Ljubiša is a common Serbian name, where the root of the word is "kiss/ing/es". Preletačević - Preletač is used for any politician switching between political parties for his own benefit, while "(ev)IĆ" is a common ending of Serbian last names. Beli means white - as he's always wearing a white suit, with his pants tucked into "grandma knitted" socks.
His associates also have their own roles.
His candidates list name is "Sarmu prob'o nisi", which means "You haven't tried the cabbage rolls" - it's not as funny in English. If you're not sure what a cabbage roll is - google Sarma. His candidacy is going under "Beli - Samo Jako". Which could be translated to Go Hard.
If you're from Serbia, you can help him by making a donation:
Luka Maksimović
205-9011006430176-97
Komercijalna banka
We're going to end this article here, however we're looking forward seeing what this former athlete will do. And, for the end - to bring laughs and joy Luka brings to his people - Luka arriving in the city of Kragujevac in style - enjoy!
COMMENTS