A real little war was going on around the Rectorate in Novi Sad: on the one hand, students (let's not say bare-handed), and on the other - activists of the Serbian Progressive Party in various formats and with various fashion details. Those who are formally students and who want to continue unhindered by shaking the Student Parliament of the Faculty of Philosophy, those in black uniforms and arranged in threes, all with caps, who throw an as yet unidentified explosive device at the student-activists, as well as more visible party workers in expensive clothes .
There is - according to the statements of eyewitnesses, and according to the eye of mobile phones - was also the bulky director of the provincial fund "European Affairs" Ognjen Dopuđ, who, flushed, physically attacked the students. Vojvodina's "European Affairs" is run by a man whose appearance would frighten you if you had the misfortune to meet him on the street.
Allegedly, the mega-controversial Marko Bosanac Boske, the famous godfather of SNS, a local brawler, a convicted thug and the leader of criminal fan groups that carry out various types of terror against disloyal Novi Sadians, also hung out there. Boske, by the way, receives huge amounts of money from local and state companies and institutions, which he distributes as he is told by the Party.
The war ended with two students (Mila Pajić and Srđan Đurić) ending up in the Emergency Center, luckily with only minor injuries. The students tried to prevent the mimicry called elections for the student parliament of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, considering them both illegal and illegitimate.
Great symbolic importance
For a long time, these elections have attracted public attention and are accompanied by incidents. Thanks to the students who are members of the organization STAV (Students Against Authoritarian Government) and who did not allow the vote for the student parliament in this institution to pass the way it passes in many other faculties, of course not only in Novi Sad, where members of the ruling party and their associates they choose this body, without any alternative.
In general, the Parliament does not have any major powers, but it is important to keep it under control so that some kind of broader student rebellion does not arise from it. In addition, the system of authoritarianism and kleptocracy dictates that all organs and all bodies must be kept firmly under control, especially if you can fool around with the hunt and do nothing, that is, do what, say, Boske and the team order you to do.
The student parliament is also a springboard for future progressive officials, where they can show and prove their loyalty to the leader and the party.
That the parliament, despite its small competences, has great political and symbolic power is shown by the fact that there has been a media and political hunt against the members of STAV for a long time, led by the current unfortunate prime minister of the unfortunate country and president of the SNS, Miloš Vučević.
Reason for rebellion
Amendments to the regulations made it impossible for anyone except the SNS party branch at the Faculty of Philosophy to participate in the elections for the student parliament. And that was the reason for the rebellion. This branch is headed by a personality named Ivana Macak, who was - mind you now - the holder of the list of the Russian Party in the local elections in Novi Sad. Several months ago, a complaint was filed against her and her colleague Aleksandar Gajić for violence against students. How the application went, we can only guess.
For the most part, they have been rewarded in the meantime with a well-paid job in the provincial administration.
STAV members chased the fox out of the bush and exposed it to the end and showed the public the destructive activities of SNS at the faculties. And that is a great success in the land of failure. Do we need to remind that the progressive saddling of the faculty is in complete opposition to the legally guaranteed autonomy of the university?
Is society dead
But, in this case too, some key questions are raised. Will this violent progressive affair have an impact on citizens and, above all, students? Will they initiate other students, both at the Faculty of Philosophy and at other faculties in Novi Sad and elsewhere, or will the majority still look at all this as something that is happening on another planet? Will student-activists who fight for elementary things, elementary normality, be unfairly declared "extremists" even by those who are against this government? Elem, has this society really died or is its heart still beating and its brain signaling something?
If students are mostly silent on violence and all kinds of injustice, then we have to accept our fate - we have shaped ourselves to be who we are. For many more years. A werewolf of civilization.
