After several months of protest, fatigue is natural. That doesn't mean the fight is over. However, instead of mass gatherings, the question is how to further direct the energy of student and popular protests
Several months have passed since the beginning of the student protests, and April 15 is approaching, when the Minister of Education resigned Slavica Djukić Dejanović declared "the last term for faculties to start working". The same date will also mark a month from March 15 and the current peak of student protests, but also of protests in Serbia in general.
The pressure on students is growing, and only in the past few days tabloids have been printing news about the closure of the blockades. For days there have been rumors about possible police raids on universities.
At the same time, there is also among the students themselves disagreements over the idea of an expert government. In such a situation, the question arises: has fatigue occurred? protest and what could be the next steps?
Faculties (not) start classes
"The Faculty of Medicine in Niš announced the end of the blockade", is the headline that, in various variations, could be read on all tabloid portals on Wednesday (April 9). It wasn't long before he was joined by the news that the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Novi Sad decided to start teaching.
However, the statements of the students of these two faculties were not transmitted. Their essence is as follows: the demands were not met, and the professor's decision to start classes was not supported by the student plenum. Accordingly, the students announced that, despite the statements of their faculties, they would remain in the blockade.
Pride, the students of the Faculty of Medicine in Niš also requested the replacement of the administration, headed by Dean Aleksandar Mitić, the signatory of the statement on the "dynamic plan for teaching compensation", which was posted on the faculty's website three times.
Students of these two faculties are not the only ones facing rumors that they are starting classes. On Wednesday, RTS published the news in Dnevnik that, among others, the Belgrade Academy of Business and Professional Studies, the Academy of Polytechnics, the Academy of Professional Studies in Šabac and the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) have left the blockade.
The students quickly denied this information, and the same evening they urgently called for a protest in front of the RTS building.
Political articulation of protest?
More than four months after the beginning of the blockades, the agenda of student plenums included the question of the political articulation of student protests, which, at the national level, has been a subject of division since the beginning.
While most students Faculty of Arts in Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Novi Pazar supported the idea of an expert government with a time-limited mandate, the Belgrade students in the blockade still did not speak publicly.
The exception is the students of the Faculty of Philosophy, who publicly expressed concern about the idea of forming an expert government, fearing that it "risks harming the unity of the student movement and neglecting the creation of consensus, which is a key part of direct democracy."
An alternative to supporting the transitional government could be the formation of a student movement, which would be a possible option in some future elections, but such a thing, at least for now, is unlikely.
"We are pumping until the requirements are met. I hope we will manage to find some political solution. I believe that when the time comes to vote, many people will want to circle 'students', but that is not an option at the moment. I do not believe that it will ever be, the most certain thing is that we will support someone," said a student of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Đorđe to "Demostat".
Discussions are held at the plenums.
In the same show, he revealed that the issue of the end of blockades is sporadically raised at plenums.
"One day at the plenum, we had on the agenda the question of resolving the blockages. A lot of colleagues from the final year came who had a couple of exams left and wanted the blockages to end so they could finish university and find a job. I think it's a little selfish on their part because we are still fighting for something more," he said.
His colleague Strahinja from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering confirmed that there are students who have few exams left until the end and for whom it means that financially they do not have to go through another year in Belgrade without completing their undergraduate or master's studies.
"At the university, we also almost had the question of ending the protest, quite a lot of 'machines' responded to the call of a professor, a full amphitheater, and it is one of the largest in Belgrade. We voted almost unanimously to continue the blockades," he said.
Plenums function in that everyone has the right to propose an item on the agenda. If it is adopted and voted, the plenum can decide to forward it to the umbrella working group, which then informs the representatives of other faculties with the proposal of its plenum.
The proposals of different faculties are thus discussed at different plenums, and the decision of each plenum is finally accepted at the Great Meeting of Delegates, where the votes from all faculties are added up.
Although the process is slow, this way every potential decision is checked multiple times. Thus, a possible official decision on some kind of political articulation of the student rebellion will have to wait a little.
Wake-up call
If we talk about the fatigue of protests, we should also ask who are those who are tired? For now, it seems that they are not students: they have added two new demands in the past week, they are calling for new protests almost every day, and some of them have already been on the bicycle route to Strasbourg for days.
In addition, students have been appealing to other spheres of society for months. The last appeal was sent to the University of Belgrade to "come forward with more radical measures of resistance, in the form it considers adequate", and all because "now, students and representatives of the University would come forward synchronously as a homogeneous body".
Oliver Tošković, professor of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, believes that a significant part of the university has acted quite radically so far.
"We have completely suspended classes, which is a more radical step than the strike, which is why I think the university professors were radical enough. However, I agree with the students that pressure on the authorities should be increased," he told Al Jazeera.
On the other hand, research associate at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, Dejan Bursać, assesses that the students are asking for the same thing with the appeal for radicalization that they asked for with the earlier request that citizens organize themselves into assemblies.
"It is clear to the students that they cannot be the only bearers of the struggle, especially because they do not want to be highlighted as bearers of demands for political regime change. They constantly repeat that they have a demand that the institutions do their job and that the broader political struggle must be led by someone else, that is, a broad front, and not only them," Bursać points out.
Where next?
It is natural that the energy of the protest, after several months on the streets, cannot be constantly at its peak. But that the protests still have a purpose is shown by the government itself, which is trying its hardest to suppress them.
There is the media propaganda machinery from the beginning of the text, with the task of creating the perception that the blockades are inevitably coming to an end - now they will, only it's not. In reality, the resolution of the crisis is still not in sight.
The government's repression of dissenters is also growing, so a few days ago it was announced that they would be from Serbia expelled Croatian citizen Arien Stojanović Ivković, who has been living in Belgrade for 12 years, studied there, got married and had a child.
Reasoning: "The authority responsible for the protection of the security of the Republic of Serbia submitted an assessment that the stay of Croatian citizen Ivković Stojanović Arien represents an unacceptable security risk." In reality, as the young doctor told N1, her life boils down to work, kindergarten, child, family and going to the occasional student protest.
In addition, pressure is growing on professors and universities to start work, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, announces that he will present his own demands at the meeting on April 12.
Although the pressure is great, the students' energy is still not stifled. How to further direct the energy of students and infuse new strength into the interest of citizens? The answers to these questions will have to be provided not only by students, but also by the wider community.
Sources: Al Jazeera Balkans/Demostat
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