The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, challenged students and citizens to meet him on March 15 in Belgrade - if they dare. The decision on Andrić's wreath has been made: there is no more foiling that the top regime is tolerant, the hard game of repression begins
"We invite the whole of Serbia, literally the whole of Serbia, which is fed up with all of this, to the largest gathering in the history of Serbia on March 28 in Belgrade, to fight for our fair, free, honorable, libertarian and liberated Serbia again," exclaimed the President of Serbia and the leader of the Serbian Progressive Party, Aleksandar Vučić, at the meeting of the SNS Main Board on Monday.
Like an insecure adolescent, or some kind of hooligan, the President of the Republic threw a gauntlet in the face of students who have been protesting for months and blocking colleges on the principle: I will show you whose is bigger.
And his rally will be the largest in the history of Serbia, "bigger than the one in Gazimestan".
The plagiarist progressive movement under the leadership of Ace Serbin is not using counter-rally tactics for the first time. Tand they did it on May 26, 2023. to show that they are more powerful and more numerous than the citizens who protested after the murders in Ribnikar, Dubona and Mali Orašje. The gathering of drawn and paid people passed ingloriously.
The mask has fallen.
A lot has changed in Serbia since then. In just a few months, the students managed to extract the spirit of rebellion that is spreading across the country from the tightly corked bottle.
Vučić obviously lost his temper because of that. He stopped playing the tolerant uncle who has understanding for youthful rebellion, for student protests, who is patiently waiting for you to come to your senses, i.e. that the protests begin to dissipate, which avoids using against them the instruments of state power that it controls. That role did not suit him, he seemed somehow creepy.
Now the decision has clearly been made: the government is moving hard against student protests and civil rebellion. The protest in Belgrade on March 15 must at all costs turn out to be a fiasco, not as a magnificent image of hundreds of thousands of people who stood up against a corrupt regime and an inept autocrat, but as a festival of violence. Those who protest for democracy and the rule of law should be presented as hardened thugs who want to destroy the state.
Vučić announced violence, mass arrests and prosecutions for attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order, for which multi-year prison sentences are foreseen. There is no more foiling, tolerance, understanding - the regime decided to take off the mask because nothing else has borne fruit to curb civil resistance, a rebellion that penetrates the pores of the progressive system of government. Intimidation and threats of brute force were resorted to.
Vojislav Šešelj must rejoice, his student is returning to what he taught him - radical roots.
The boys in Pionirski Park also showed who they really are and what their role is: big boys jumped over the fence surrounding their camp on Monday evening and beat up a boy who was passing by.
Civic courage on the test
Vučić is counting on the fact that a large number of students and citizens will be frightened and give up participating in the protest on March 15, which should be the culmination of all the protests since the beginning of November last year. Because unlike his "decent Serbia", which is ruled by criminals and thugs, these are really peaceful citizens who are afraid of violence.
Vučić literally invited them to step into his line like, as we have already said, some adolescent who has to prove himself or a hooligan who wants to impose himself as the undisputed boss. Come on now, if you're allowed, you know there will be brawls, broken heads, you know some of you will end up in prison, said the President of the Republic, who emphasizes how brave he is in almost every one of his daily appearances on television. And you know who has a constant need to emphasize their own fearlessness.
Once again, civic courage is being tested in Serbia. Students are arriving in Belgrade on foot, from the north and south of the country, and there is no doubt that they will hold their protest. It is up to adult citizens to decide whether to stand by them. Numbers are the protesters' greatest protection against the ravaged regime.
During that time, the one who challenges them bravely will be somewhere where he will be guarded by squads of selected members of special units.
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Where Seselj left off, Vucic continues. Why did Ana Grozdanović, a member of the SPS Main Board, deserve the position of Minister of Justice in Dr. Macuta's government? And what the regime wants to achieve with the Stalinist campaign of intimidation
These are the last days when there is a chance that the great rebellion in Serbia will not pass in vain and without a political result. If it goes that way, the regime will launch an even stronger retaliation
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
The return of radical violence subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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