While the mass of people flows peacefully towards the highway leading to the Adriatic, the pictures from Užice say that you are chasing the Gendarmerie, pepper spray and mass arrests cannot scare the people of Užice. Protest "Serbia, Užice is calling you!" it's not an incident, it's the final message that the city on Djetinja refuses to be a point on the map of political apathy.
Citizens, students, pensioners, parents with children are no longer marginals of the social scene of western Serbia, their coming out on the streets is not a random explosion, but a steady erosion of life that merges into a unique rebellion.
And when the cordon of the gendarmerie "corrects" peaceful sitting on the highway - it is a symptom of weakness, and not the regime's ability to confront the truth that the protests are carrying like a torrent throughout the country.
There is also the Eparchy of Žička, which tells the rebels that Jesus is the truth, that the students are moved by the truth, and therefore Jesus is with the students in the blockade. They received a blessing personally from his eminence, Bishop Justin, who is in charge of the flock in that part of Serbia.
Protests as systemic events
Although the regime of Aleksandar Vučić normalizes repression, protests are no longer gatherings of individuals ready to take risks, they are systemic events. Their strength is shown by the fact that the authorities in Užice on Sunday gave up the use of force, despite all threats that the blockades of vital roads will not be tolerated.
In order, however, to increase the pressure of the insurgents to the point where those who lead Serbia see the calling of extraordinary parliamentary elections as the only attempt to save themselves, even greater solidarity in society is needed. That, for example, entire professional communities dare to go on a general strike, which the students unsuccessfully called for on two occasions; that civil disobedience, which was also called for by the students (you have the green light), is spreading even more, despite arrests and misdemeanor and criminal charges. Because freedom, which is based on the rule of law, costs money, it is not for nothing, it will not fall from the sky.
Balance of fear
At the protest from the beginning of July, the people from Užice did not ask for a confrontation with the police - but they got it. The repertoire that followed is pure show of teeth. The regime's media pretends that nothing in particular is happening, they claim that the Uzice blockade riot has failed, they throw around the figure of 3621 demonstrators, but it is simply a fact that the institutional reaction was absent, that everything was reduced to the creation of a parallel reality, which to an increasing extent, to an increasing number of people, seems tragic-comic.
Protests in Serbia no longer impose questions of "whether" and "if", because tolerance in society has turned into an insatiable need for normality, for the rule of law.
After large protests in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar... we reached Užice. Will the protest on Djetinja turn out to be a tip in the scales that will finally upset the balance in favor of the rebellious society, break the established balance of fear? Maybe.
And if not, it will be a protest in another city, it's only a matter of time.
