Methodology of pressure: From teachers to university professors, let the rest get ready

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin like to arrest or physically deal with dissenters and those dissatisfied with their rule. Aleksandar Vučić he applies a more advanced method - he exhausts the victims economically.

It does this with professional media - numerous so-called SLAPP lawsuits, which aim to financially destroy newsrooms they don't like, like a journalist from Creek, by cutting off the advertising market and excluding it from state media support projects.

The progressives treated the companies that got in their way in a similar way, so for years, for example, they threw pistons at the wheels of SBB's business, so that in the end - bought by a company that favors the authorities.

They also applied that method to teachers, who were deprived of their February salary, so many of them, under the coercion of threats and serious financial difficulties, returned to work.

Now the target is professors at faculties.

Two pressure tracks: Threats and denial of income

Vladimir Obradović, a professor at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and opposition candidate for mayor of Belgrade in the elections on December 17, 2024, tells "Vreme" that the government is using every available method to suppress, primarily, student protests.

"First they used hate speech, which resulted in frequent physical attacks on students, and now also on the dean in Niš," says Obradović about attack with a knife on the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy Natalija Jovanović who directly accused Vučić of this, who called her a "criminal from Niš" and part of the "evil trinity".

The authorities relativize that attack with comments that the dean suffered a "kitchen injury".

The rector of Belgrade University, Vladan Đokić, has been the target of regime attacks for days, and SNS officials say that he should be arrested.

"Now it's time to take away the salaries of professors and all employees in higher education institutions, which is illegal," adds Obradović.

And the United Education of Serbia strongly condemned the "narrative that dominates on television with a national frequency", which targets and insults the dignity of teachers.

Emphasizing that they stand for decency, education and upbringing with their whole professional and individual being, the members of the United Education of Serbia emphasized in a statement that they are against actions that lead to aggression and escalation of violence in society, such as the case of the dean in Nis.

Despite the insults uttered at the expense of the educational community, which go beyond the scope of civilized behavior, the welfare of society will remain a priority from which educators will not give up, said the United Education of Serbia.

Lawsuits will be filed.

Teachers in primary and secondary schools have already filed a collective lawsuit against the state that denied or reduced their salary, and an initiative was submitted to the Constitutional Court to determine whether the reduction of salaries in education is in accordance with the Constitution.

Unlike teachers, professors would have to individually sue the faculties for unpaid wages, and Obradović says that this can be a problem because the faculties are mostly not to blame for their salary being taken away.

"I believe that it will quickly turn out that these moves by the state are constitutional, but during that time there is an incredible pressure on the entire education system," says the former member of the National Assembly.

In the meantime, a large number of teachers succumbed to pressure. The question is how long university professors can go without a salary. Everything according to principle: Vučić gives an order, and the institutions deny someone money from the state budget, practically abolishing the right to economic existence.

The methods by which the government of SNS and SPS want to suppress the rebellion in Serbia - "many months of terror of the minority over the majority", as it is presented - is the best proof of how justified the protests are for the rule of law.