There is a long baton in fear: with the Police Brigade on deputies and councilors

Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party now have their own political prisoners. Goran Ješić and several students and activists are still languishing in prison after the protest in Novi Sad.

During this time BIA intervenes to the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and intimidates art historians not to make waves due to the planned demolition of the General Staff.

Then, the self-proclaimed supreme commander and informal head of all security services and state power institutions, Vučić gives the command on Tuesday for the Police Brigade to be fully equipped to break up the demonstrations. prevent people's deputies and Novi Sad councilors to enter the building where the High Court and the High Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad are located in order not to "force them to start doing their work".

It has come to a situation where the special unit of the police, which is otherwise, among other things, in charge of neutralizing dangerous criminals, defends the right of the judicial authorities to work unhindered as dictated by the top of the Serbian Progressive Party, while Vučić and Brnabić accuse the opposition leaders of wanting to put pressure on Court and Prosecutor's Office.

The same scenario is repeated on Wednesday.

Footage and images of armed police officers in full gear to break up demonstrations they knock down the messengers to the ground and they travel around Serbia with them. These are scenes that should frighten all those who believe that the time has come for more radical action because the government is deaf to the peaceful protests of citizens.

The strategy of "fighting with the truth" against the regime because the truth will win in the end, preached the other day by the President of the Freedom and Justice Party Dragan Đilas, would certainly not require the use of special police forces.

The activation of this unit is a reflection of the fear of people at the top of the government that the spark of popular rebellion after the tragedy in Novi Sad could turn into a fire of wider proportions, so it should be extinguished by a demonstration of bare force.

Tasks of the Police Brigade

While all this is happening in Novi Sad, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dačić, is sending members of the Police Brigade to the Old Sava bridge to deal with a handful of activists who want to prevent its demolition. Like in the sweet Slobin times.

In the description of the purpose of the PJP (special police unit) of the Police Brigade - recognizable by its white helmets and shields, it is stated: arresting dangerous criminals, securing the biggest sporting events and suppressing disorder on the streets, finding and destroying explosive devices, breaking into buildings...

Nowhere does it say that this special police unit is being sent to ensure some construction works, in the specific case to enable the construction machines to remove the asphalt and rails from the Old Sava bridge unhindered.

But this is all taking place under the noses of the citizens of Belgrade on the water, a parade project of the progressive government, so the "turtles" should deter all those who want to protest, so that some other disrespecters of Vučić do not get violent.

How the demonstrators could pass was also shown arrest of the leader of Kreni-promena and Belgrade councilor Sava Manojlović on Stari Most: he was roughly knocked to the ground, handcuffed, and while he was moaning in pain, they took him to the police station and drove him in an unknown direction. Later, news broke that he was taken to the Emergency Center.

The arrest of Pavlo Cicvarić

A little later Pavle Cicvarić was also arrested who invited the students to a protest at the Rector's Office, where Aleksandar Vučić himself was supposed to appear on the occasion of International Students' Day on Wednesday at 12.30:XNUMX p.m.

Instead, the President of Serbia called an "emergency meeting" of the National Security Council. The President of the Republic is known for not appearing anywhere where someone could throw something unpleasant at him.

Total disorganization

The actions of colorful activists and political parties in Belgrade seemed chaotic, disorganized, forced. It was run from Stari to Branko Bridge, then back to Belgrade on the water, from the Rectorate to Branko Bridge. All this uncoordinated, unorganized, a little here, a little there.

It has been shown once again that civil society is not dead, that there is a willingness to resist, but that, just like the opposition, it is completely uncoordinated.

Thus, nothing can be done against the organs of state repression with one command center.

Leaders of the opposition in the front ranks

The good news for all those who do not love the regime of Aleksandar Vučić is that the opposition leaders have finally taken the initiative and are at the forefront of the protests in Novi Sad. They don't hesitate to stand in front of shields and batons. They seem determined, unique and give the impression that they know what they want.

The idea that Vučić should be fought with the truth has, for now, not caught on.

In recent weeks, the government has sent a message that the reaction to actions that are treated as "rebellion" will be much tougher than before. This shows the parallel engagement of the elite unit of the Serbian police in Novi Sad and Belgrade; this is shown by the already rather massive hasty arrests of "rebels", as well as violations of their rights; this is also shown by the increasingly visible abuse of the BIA.

Dacic warns that from now on there will be no jokes with the police, i.e. that they will not tolerate any signs of "violent" behavior, which includes roadblocks, attempts by deputies to enter the High Court, organizing unpleasant protests for Vucic...

Anything can be classified as an "attempt to subvert the Constitutional Order", which entails many years of prison sentences.

All in all, Dacic said after the meeting of the National Security Council, which was urgently convened by Vučić, you can walk peacefully to your heart's content, and everything else - nothing.

Blockades etc. It will be treated as an attack on the security of the country.

A pathological feeling of invincibility

Vučić's regime has so far avoided direct confrontation with people who are protesting in slightly larger numbers against anything: mass murders in Ribnikar, Dubona and Mali Orašje, lithium, election theft, the demolition of Herzegovina, the construction of Ruglo on the water, the breaking of the head of Borko Stefanović (1 of 5 million), to the closure of the Student Dormitory during the corona virus... The tactic up until now has always been either to make some concessions, or to allow, mostly without any concessions, the revolt blows itself out; the police emphatically avoided provoking any conflict with citizens.

Have times changed? Did Vučić think that civil society has finally been killed so much, that it no longer has to tolerate all those protests that annoy it, that the intensification of party-state repression will not cause a bigger rebellion, but will finally suppress any visible resistance?

Aleksandar Vučić is an experienced politician, but absolute power does not confuse anyone's mind. Considering what the progressives have gone unpunished until now, it would not be surprising if his sense of invincibility reached pathological proportions.

Crucial in this new balancing of forces will be the readiness of the opposition leaders to take on themselves a far greater risk than before and to no longer try to reach a different result in the same way; and the readiness of citizens who vote for them to support them in this with their presence and mass, regardless of threats from the top of the government.

Dacic threatened them and the anti-regime activists that they would lose their jobs.

Because there is something else there: the symbol of the bloody fist of both him and Vučić is disturbingly reminiscent of that clenched fist of the resistance.