"The meeting that power organized on Wednesday (November 5) evening in front Assembly of Serbia it seemed terrible on several levels, because it was seen that the government collects people from all parts of the country, pays them, blackmails some, and some come willingly. There you have a military, slave-owning drive to narrow the conflict," Oliver Tošković, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, told Vreme.
He points out that it is obvious that the government, no matter how hard it tries, cannot gather even a part of the people that they can gather students at the protest.
He reminds me that he is at a meeting. 1. November in Novi Sad, and to which the students only invited through social networks, there were 150.000 people.
"On Wednesday evening, it was organized to bring people to a much bigger city than Novi Sad, in Belgrade, and they barely gathered 14.000 people. "You can see the manner in which people are being forced, as if they were trading in white slaves, and the government has no strength, and that strength is declining," says Tošković.
He also reminds that the government was able to gather 40.000 people until a year or two ago, and now barely 14.000.
"One of the biggest shames of this country"
He points out that forcing someone to come to a meeting is a drastically different narrative than when students invite on social networks.
"In addition, the whole situation is bizarre, because the rally and counter-rally that are constantly there, the fences smeared with that grease and the police standing in between - it all seems surreal. It is one of the biggest shames this country has experienced. I don't know any country where the government installed a protest against its people in front of the parliament," he says. Toskovic.
He states that the government "like any conquering and hostile government in a nation" is trying to create an atmosphere based on the principle of "divide and rule".
"They try to create a division even when the division is not so pronounced, they feed on it and it keeps them in power," says Tošković.
He adds that the difference in the government's narrative compared to the students' narrative can also be seen in the fact that students "unite different religions, ages, village and city, left and right, while the government constantly insists on the division of 'us and them'."
"The whole story with tents both now and with with music in front of the Assembly of Serbia is reminiscent of a burlesque version of the president's 'So what?'. It's a matter of reckless spite and provocation by poking a finger in the eye. On the one hand, there are people who say that corruption is destroying us and that people are dying, and the government's answer is: 'So what?'. Diana Hrka is on a hunger strike, and the music is literally telling her - 'So what?' "She lost her son, and they provoke her with songs, and the authorities literally say - 'So what?'" says Tošković.
"The president is free to publicly apologize"
He states that he saw for himself that he is the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić stated that "we interpret it maliciously".
"If the president really thinks that we misunderstood their message with the song." Baje Mali Knindža and those who "the son's mother went to look for", if they are decent and responsible people - they can apologize. There sits a mother who lost her child. Polite world, when you say something by accident, without intending to offend someone else, apologize to that person. "The president can freely, publicly, apologize to that woman or the organizer of that rally can approach her and apologize and say that he will no longer play that song," says Tošić.
He emphasizes that he thinks that, unfortunately, it will not happen, but that he will "play that song even more".
"We saw how the president apologized to the prosecutors whom he called out in the worst possible way - by insulting them even more," concludes Tošković.
