The students' decision to submit a request to the regime for the dissolution of the state parliament i calling for extraordinary parliamentary elections it didn't fall from Mars. This option has been vigorously discussed at plenums for a long time, and the matter was cut short when it became clear to everyone that the government not only does not want to fulfill student requirements rather, it responds to the political crisis with ever stronger repression and increasingly dirty propaganda.
The topic of the new student request is dealt with in the new issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday, May 8.
Political scientist Viktor Stamenković tells "Vreme" that the strength of the student demand lies in the fact that it offers a concrete and generally accepted way out of the crisis - elections.
"President Vučić himself has insisted several times since November that he is ready to go to the elections. However, this time the situation is different. The events initiated by students in the past few months represent a catharsis of Serbian society," says Stamenković.
Several surveys published in the last period show that the vast majority of Serbian citizens support the fulfillment of student demands and that a significant part of those citizens would be ready to vote for a list supported by students.
"Now a movement has appeared which, despite all the irregularities, has a real chance of winning the elections, which the government knows very well", says Stamenković in an interview with "Vreme".
For political scientist Milorad Đurić, the student request represents a "crucial decision", which introduces the protests into the sphere of clear political articulation, and it was certainly necessary in order for the life cycle of the rebellion to continue to develop qualitatively. According to him, the students' decision is legitimate for three reasons.
"The first is the fact that the authoritarian regime in Serbia has not fully fulfilled, nor does it intend to fulfill, the students' demands. The second reason is the enormous social and political energy that the student-citizen protest generated in the previous five-six months. The third reason lies in the very basis of political logic: when an idea embraces the masses, it by itself, whether the actors want it or not, necessarily becomes a political fact," Đurić told "Vreme".
Power between two bad options
So far, only a few representatives of the government have commented on this student request, and the government, according to Stamenković, is choosing between two bad options: the first is going to extraordinary elections, and the second is rejecting them.
"The first option is bad because, for the first time since 2012, the government is facing an actor who can replace the level of irregularities with his own strength and potentially, despite everything, win. The other bad side of calling elections is that, regardless of the result, those elections would be followed by the biggest irregularities since the SNS came to power," he says.
What will be the student list
The students would have their own list in the elections they are looking for, on which, as they now claim, it would not be them, but professors, experts from various fields, farmers - those who supported them in the months after us.
Political scientist Dejan Bursać sees the students' decision to demand elections and create some kind of list bearing their name as a logical evolutionary continuation of the student protest.
If they stick to the request that there are no political figures on their list, Bursać says that we will have an interesting political dynamic in the extraordinary elections.
"It seems to me that it will remain so, that the students will ask the opposition to support them in some way and not participate in the campaign. Based on the views of a large number of voters, I believe that it could be good for the opposition in the long term, that is, for a large social movement to fight the SNS. In the event that it succeeds in defeating it and democratizing the country, the opposition political parties will be able to realize their own interests and profit in the future," Bursać told "Vreme".
In the coming period, it will be interesting for Bursać to see how that "student list" will be formed. Whoever is on it, he adds, will be a competitive competitor of SNS for the first time after 13 years.
Be that as it may, in the triangle regime - opposition - student movement, the latter have the greatest trust of the citizens for now, as all the surveys from December last year show, and it would be good if such a mood of the citizens could also be seen in the redistribution of political power, influence and responsibility.
What is still waiting is a well-organized movement that will operate on the territory of the entire Serbia, with an excellent connection with the diaspora and that will bring an electoral victory against this regime even in limited electoral conditions. That's why we are waiting for what else the students and those who see themselves as opposition to this regime will tell us.
The new issue of "Vremena" is on newsstands from Thursday, May 8. You can log in here printed i digital edition.
