The list of government threats to students in the blockade is only expanding - criminal charges, accusations of violence, violation of the law, mistreatment of women... But they receive nothing, RTS does not work normally, and the police do not react. Is it proof of the state's impotence?
The blockade was successful. RTS it no longer broadcasts a regular program, and part of the employees revolted. Despite the threats, there is plenty criminal charges which are raining in all directions, the blockade is still going on. During that time, Pink and Informer cut and spread falsehoods, some politicians' statements, some their own observations, on an unprecedented scale - as they fight with each other and with people who come at the roadblocks, destroy property, beat the police.
On April 20, Ana Brnabić went a step further, when she called the students and citizens gathered in front of the RTS building "sadists and cowards who mistreat women in a pack."
"Sadism is when you torture, scold and humiliate a young RTS journalist by showing her the middle finger in front of her face in a live program, and then you brag that you made her cry. I haven't even seen anyone condemn it. It's sadism when some student blockader who cycled to Strasbourg likes that raping women is a superpower and posts in which women are slapped. I didn't see any plenum disassociate themselves from Miloš Pavlović only because he expressed a position that is opposite to theirs."
However, nothing helps or works, the blockages continue.
He regretted the pardon, but he will make amends
Aleksandar Vučić commented similarly. The President of Serbia commented that "that criminal Đajić" is sitting in front of RTS, referring to the engineer Zoran Đajić, who was supervising the construction of the canopy and immediately went to the media to talk about all the maltreatment.
He added that he made a huge mistake when he made the decision on 12 pardons and that he is looking to correct it. He spoke to students and citizens detained during the student blockades, for which no one even asked him to pardon them.
He also called on the competent state authorities to restore legal order, if possible without the use of force.
"Then when force is necessary, in that case it should be the least possible in order to resolve things," said the President of Serbia.
The Prime Minister of AP Vojvodina, Maja Gojković, said on Pink that at two meetings, students planned to break into the National Assembly and the RTS building and start broadcasting their program.
"That's called a coup d'état. Who has the right and according to what law to block a media service and do whatever they want inside it?" Gojković said.
They filed criminal charges from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also from RTS, and in the sea of comments from the authorities, they had to say that they were against the blockade, even from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, completely without jurisdiction. They expressed deep concern about the multi-day blockade, which they say represents a serious attack on media freedom and the public's right to information.
Terrorists and hunger strikers
"The thuggery and violence of the blockaders continues: They want to seize the state with violence!", "Coup d'etat on RTS! The blockaders started the terrorist plan Hunter and the Hind" - these are just some of the headlines on Informer. The tabloid writes that "by occupying RTS, violence and mistreatment of citizens, attacks on the police, calls for the lynching of editors-in-chief are carried out."
"During the blockade, we could see numerous incidents involving the violence of the blockaders and disruption of the public service. RTS employees were prevented from leaving the building after the end of their shift, which RTV General Director Goran Karadžić described as a kidnapping," writes Informer.
According to the RTS reporter, the blockaders did not allow the employees to bring food inside the RTS building, they added.
Why aren't the police responding?
The informer "informs" almost every day about student attacks that happen at roadblocks, as well as injured policemen.
"Thugs blocked traffic, set up barricades, clashed with the police, and there were injuries," the tabloid writes.
However, if it is being said from the top of the government that there is a brutal violation of the law, why does the police not dare to react and detain anyone? If they already have the hands of the party leadership and the entire set of authorities freed.
Either the government is not really in control of the situation and cannot control the police, or else, which seems much more likely, it is telling lies about what happens during the blockades.
The case of Milica Stojanović, who hit a student police officer with her car during the January protests, experienced a sudden turn in just a few months - from being accused of attempted murder to being released from custody and transferred to the basic court. The decisions of the prosecution and the court raised suspicions of political pressure and selective justice
The group of students who started the symbolic ultramarathon from Serbia to the EU on April 25 arrived in Brussels. MEP Irena Joveva said: "We saw where the president of Serbia was two days ago, and you can see where the students are now."
The Democratic Party and the Green-Left Front support the student request to hold extraordinary parliamentary elections, but warn that the conditions will not be a fairy tale.
"You can't live without Vučić. Because, as with similar regimes, the fall from power or the loss of office can mean prison if there is a trial for corruption or other criminal acts," political scientist Vedran Džihić told Frankfurter Rundschau.
The interlocutors of "Vremen" emphasize that the Ministry of Education is only interested in how to completely suppress any kind of rebellion with pressure and that the school year ends, and educators go on vacation, so that students lose an important ally
The knee-jerk Supreme Being trusts in the local elections in Kosjerić and Zaječar. It must not be forgotten that for 13 years he poured heavy poisons, especially in the province, and that detoxification is a long and painful process.
If the various opponents of Vučić's regime are unable to help the student youth, they could at least not retaliate. They have been working the same way and with the same disastrous results for too long to expect anyone to ask them anything
There are no more students ahead and us behind them. Now we are all in the same situation: we drove the beast out into the open. We know how it goes
Student request for calling extraordinary parliamentary elections
Serbia's historic chance 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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