"I think it is wrong to ignore Vučić, to pretend that he has already fallen and lost all sense. With him, the rational and the irrational intertwine. Both are strong, and that is why all responsible parts of society must unite and organize in order for him to be replaced in a legal and democratic way. That approach does not contradict the slogan 'You are not competent'. I am proud of the Serbian students who had enough knowledge or, rather, the feeling to understand how much he, malignant narcissist, that attitude hits"
Sa Tanasi Marinković, professor of constitutional law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, we are talking only a day and a half later closing of polling stations in Zaječar and Kosjerić, on a day when Belgrade is collapsing due to two blockades, the one in "Caciland" and the blockade that professors and students set up in front of the Serbian Government building. Also, it is the day on which Prime Minister Đuro Macut and the rector of the University of Belgrade reached an agreement on the organization of entrance exams. Marinković is also a member of the Republican Election Commission, a member of the Inquiry Commission to determine the cause of the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, and a professor who has supported the students in the blockade from the beginning. We talk to him in all these capacities.
"WEATHER" Now that we have the first election results in Kosjerić and Zaječar, how to interpret them? On the one hand, there seems to be no opposition victory in either of these two seats. On the other hand, SNS victory-and it is thinner than ever, with drastic irregularities.
TANASIJE MARINKOVIC: You are right, it is about the first results. Considering what was reported to us by the CRTA observation mission and the representatives of the opposition electoral lists that were candidates in the elections in Kosjerić and Zaječar, there were serious irregularities in the election campaign and the conduct of voting, and we can expect to file legal remedies due to these irregularities. In this sense, I would wait for the overall report to be issued first and for it to become final, which means that all administrative and judicial proceedings regarding election disputes are finished, so that we can then draw conclusions.
At the same time, I must say right away that, unfortunately, I do not have much faith in the autonomy and independence of the local election commissions in these two places. I was a witness that those qualities prescribed by law were not present even among individual members of the Republican Election Commission in 2023 and 2024. It should be remembered that members of local election commissions are not necessarily lawyers. Therefore, they do not always have professional knowledge, and what can be expected from fellow lawyers - judges in higher courts who are competent to decide on appeals against the decisions of local election commissions, is difficult to predict. However, all these warnings should not discourage us in our legal battle.
Allow me a little digression in this regard. For almost a year and a half, we have been waiting for the decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the request to annul the parliamentary, provincial and Belgrade elections held in 2023. That fact alone casts a shadow over the legitimacy of the parliamentary majorities resulting from those elections, because their mandates are always the subject of legal disputes. This fact also casts a shadow on the legitimacy of the Constitutional Court, because since 2012 it has clearly demonstrated that there is not even a shred of independence in politically sensitive cases. However, his shameful silence, unacceptably long, speaks loudly about the victory of the arguments and evidence presented in the given requests.
What does that have to do with this election??
All this has to do with the current elections, which are not over until the overall reports are made and they become final. Our evaluation of the legitimacy of the election will depend on the arguments and evidence that will be presented in the legal means, and the election result, I remind you, is not only what happens on election day, but also what the media and field election campaign is like and whether there is direct pressure on the voters, and above all, what is our unique voter list.
But here is already an indicator of possible election theft on election day itself. The analysis of the records of the work of the polling boards in Kosjerić and Zaječar by students of the Faculty of Law shows that there was a sudden increase in voting outside the polling station, i.e. at home and in Kosjerić and Zaječar. In Kosjerić, 324 people voted outside the polling station in this year's elections, while 2023 voted in 269, and 2022 in 274. In this year's elections in Zaječar, 1180 people voted outside the polling station, while in 2023, 795 people voted, and in 2022, 751 people voted. Such a sharp increase in voting at home in 2025 compared to relatively stable numbers of such cases in 2022 and 2023 indicates that there are grounds for suspicion that the criminal act of falsifying voting results was committed in these local elections. Namely, in the 2023 Belgrade elections, we noted that in the conditions of increased voting outside the polling station, entire (multi-member) families, young people and persons with very similar, if not identical, signatures exercised their right to vote. In other words, the big question is whether these people even voted.
Except for numbers, and the atmosphere says something. These two places were occupied on Sunday, we even saw police with long pipes, gendarmerie, emergency... Before that, all those "actions" Social Media-and with asphalting, by giving away white goods, lambs and the like. Now, none of this is normal, and we expected all of that. What additional means can be used against it now, uz, of course, filing a complaint?
You should certainly use all available legal means. They confirm the correctness of our struggle, that the struggle against Vučić is not a revolution, not even a colored revolution, but a struggle for constitutionality, as, for example, was the struggle for the liberation of the North American colonies from the British Empire at the end of the 18th century. They are also a very important argument in front of our partners in the European Union, who understand very well the values of the rule of law and the rule of the people, even though, unfortunately, in their politics they are guided by interests that are opposed to ours. Not only a moral victory in these places, but apparently also a stolen victory, testifies to the fact that the maximum mobilization of all civil and political resources is needed in order to reach a point where the Vučić regime not only cheats in the elections with media manipulations and other forms of pressure on the voters before the vote, but during the vote itself.
This pathology is easier to prove, and the fight against it is, in a certain sense, simpler. Finally, it is not enough just to achieve the maximum mobilization of all healthy parts of society. Their unique, referendum performance in overthrowing the alienated government is also needed.
Are we giving too much importance to the fact that President Vučić's address on Sunday evening was drastically delayed and that SNS is not spectacular (and the first) declared victory?
I could not speculate on the reasons for the delay in his speech, but I believe that even he, who normally has no moral scruples, is finding it increasingly difficult to pretend to be normal, in the categories of his own distorted value system.
The request to call for extraordinary parliamentary elections still stands. Whether, after Kosjerić and Zaječar, that request gained even more power or not?
From everything I have stated, based on all the doubts about the correctness of the electoral procedure in these places, it follows that Vučić's regime has been completely delegitimized. Kilometers of asphalt, tons of white machinery and the same number of lambs were not enough to preserve the semblance of democracy, expressed at least in the more than half the number of ballots won. It is actually important for Vučić to preserve in front of his supporters, especially loyalists, the image of an unshaken government in conditions where no institution functions as it should. That is why the demand for extraordinary parliamentary elections is more justified than ever.
Too, now that we have seen what happened in these two local governments, whether it is feasible to fight for elections and election conditions at the same time?
The struggle for electoral conditions is at the same time a struggle for winning elections. It is conducted in Serbia, but also within international organizations of which our country is a member or in which it wishes to become a member. I am referring here first of all to the European Parliament, which has perhaps shown the most understanding for the struggle of our people for the rule of law and democracy in Serbia.
This brings us back to the debate about the election conditions and the fact that a large part of the public from e.g. December, when we mostly talked "no elections", now came to support the idea of the election after all. Of course, the reason is that the social climate has changed. All the changes we have gone through since November 2024. until June 2025?
Yes, the social climate has changed a lot. Thanks to the student rebellion, the citizens were freed. Students restored their faith in common life and future, so that our society could be built on correct values. Also, it became clearer, from everything that happened after the collapse of the canopy at the Railway Station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, that the deep processes of deregulation and suppression of the general interest in favor of the party led to the weakening of the state in all aspects, including the repressive one that the regime is particularly prone to abuse. There are no building inspectors, the educational inspectorate needed time to become active in the fight against rebellious educators, the regime hires thugs to deal with dissidents because apparently the regular law and order authorities are not ready to turn into a party army. At the inadmissible and inappropriate pressures of the highest political officials on the independence and expertise of the prosecutor's office, judges and prosecutors stand up to protest by name and surname. Vučić's regime is going to one, authoritarian extreme, but society and the profession do not agree to that, they oppose it and demand more true freedom and justice.
At the last conference, The commission of inquiry to investigate the responsibility for the collapse of the canopy dealt with the ways in which Aleksandar Vučić personally usurped institutions in Serbia. It is a phenomenon that is visible to the naked eye, but the Commission now offers exact evidence. Why is it important that we have evidence for it?
The commission offers exact evidence, expertly shaped, about the responsibility of Aleksandar Vučić for the collapse of the rule of law and the rule of the people in Serbia, in the context of the circumstances under which the canopy collapsed. It is absolutely necessary to go that way in order to prove by legally relevant standards that he is the one conducting the coup, against his claims that everyone else is overthrowing the state and that only he and his loyalists are defending it.
How do, wave, The slogan fits into those facts. "You are not in charge." and the attitude of a section of the public (even the opposition) that they neither want to listen nor know what Vučić has to say? Since it is true that he stepped out of his jurisdiction a long time ago, but again, at least for us who are still listening to what he is saying, his statements and behavior serve as a means of prediction, not just for his next moves, but for entire political and social processes.
I think it is wrong to ignore him, to pretend that he has already fallen and lost all sense. In him, the rational and the irrational intertwine. Both are strong, and that is why all responsible parts of society, especially political parties, must unite and organize in order to remove him from power in a legal and democratic manner. This approach does not contradict the slogan "You are not in charge". I am proud of the Serbian students who had enough knowledge or, rather, sense of law and psychology to understand how much this attitude affects him, a malignant narcissist, much more than any political science evaluations about the nature of his increasingly authoritarian government.
And finally, we also have the fate of the university on the table, primarily the University of Belgrade. It is directly related to the fate of blockades. Your faculty has a slightly different model than those who have started with online teaching. Therefore, you have an extended live consultation. What does that solution look like to you? (with reference to the fact that on the first day there was a physical attack on professor Marija Karanikić Mirić and a security guard)?
In his increasingly authoritarian rule, Vučić finally struck directly at the University. There were also previous, indirect attempts to deal with professors and students, the socio-professional group that opposes him the most. She proved to be the most persistent in the fight to ensure that the collapse of the canopy is not forgotten and that all those responsible are brought to justice. At the same time, that six-month academic defiance of Vučić's regime and his economic reaction - an attempt to starve university teachers and associates - testify to how strong his leverage is, this power to decide who will receive income and how much it will be. That regime is maintained on fear - by employing people in public services on temporary and casual jobs. By the multi-fold unconstitutional decree of the Government, university teachers and associates were practically put in the situation of being in the wind, worried about their economic, social and professional survival.
Certain faculties of the University of Belgrade, including the Faculty of Law, sought an answer in a compromise form of "moodle" teaching, which consists in highlighting the teaching material on the faculty website with a certain number of consultation hours. I did not agree with that compromise teaching model. I called my colleagues to go on strike, precisely because I absolutely understand the economic, social and professional reasons for dissatisfaction, but I am also aware that Vučić's regime feeds on the fear it causes in citizens. I would not directly link the attack on members of the Faculty at their work and educational positions to this faculty decision. This physical and verbal aggression is a consequence of the political hate speech of Aleksandar Vučić and his henchmen to which we are all exposed. I hope the investigation will determine whether the attacker was instructed more directly by the regime.
The government's retaliation against the university is ongoing. Was she certain from the moment they started-the scientific council supported the blockades and whether it is now possible to prevent them?
We could not foresee the scale of that retaliation. We could not have known that the student blockades would trigger so many positive emotions and shake the Vučić regime to such an extent. The degree of his retaliation against the university is directly proportional to the decline in his political approval ratings. It is absolutely possible to resist this retaliation by further joint struggle of teachers, associates and students. However, in order for this struggle to be successful, other segments of society must be included in it, in a more determined and organized manner.
Serbia entered into civil disobedience, and that brings with it consequences. In the days behind us, it became impossible to count those detained, arrested and injured. It will be recorded that police cars ran into peaceful citizens at full speed and that one man wanted to harm himself, under the pressure of the authorities
What did the protest on Saturday June 28 show? What messages and lessons can the government draw from it - and does it do so - and what kind of students and citizens who demonstrate? Was the manifestation of nationalism on Vidovdan expected, potentially dangerous, or does it represent something completely different? What is the position of the regime now, and what is the position of its opponents
The counting of votes in the repeated elections, at one polling place, in a town of 10.000 people, was personally monitored by the President of the State, Aleksandar Vučić, because he knew that if Kosjerić falls, more than one municipal government will be swayed. In the end, SNS managed to retain the election victory, with the usual repertoire - intimidation, demonstration of force and media smearing of opponents.
The citizens and students are so well organized that the police look ridiculous. They run from street to street, from neighborhood to neighborhood, like some confused children. If this rebellion produces the expected result, that is, if Novi Sad really becomes the local Gdańsk - it will undoubtedly be written in golden letters in the history of the city. It will be talked about with pride, just as it is proudly pointed out that in 1748 it became a free, autonomous city, by decree of Empress Maria Theresa. He paid for freedom then, it is always paid for
"After these seven months," says psychologist Zoran Pavlović, "repression becomes quite clearly counterproductive. Regimes that use excessive force often inadvertently mobilize citizens, because violence delegitimizes the government, and gives people moral clarity and emotional strength to oppose. Repression, in other words, will not only passivize society (which the regime plans), but will only strengthen the border between 'us' and 'them', will strengthen the identity of resistance and strengthen cohesion within the group that suffers injustice. The number of people taking to the streets is not decreasing, but increasing"
With a gesture of pumping at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic drew curses and insults from the regime of Aleksandar Vučić. He was put in the same basket with "blockade-terrorists" and "anti-Serbs"
And how will firefighters, police and doctors take care of unsafe tunnels? Well, by keeping an eye on the hill and being ready if the hill falls on the bus, for example
Would you sit down with Aleksandar Vučić at the bar table after he pardoned the progressive men who heroically broke the jaw of a female student with a bat? Apart from the loss of basic moral inhibitions, what else is behind this act
The 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.
See all
