"There is no going back to the old ways. Many felt freedom and understood its importance. The right way is to support children and support the future. This was also recognized by the old people who barely have a living, who came out with great difficulty, but they did it in order to give a warm welcome to that army that marched into our hearts", says Natalija Jovanović, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis, summing up her impressions.
For the weekend, Niš was the capital of rebellion, youthful energy and unity. After the magnificent protests in Novi Sad and Kragujevac, the all-day blockade of Autokomanda and the one in Slavija, southern spite gave birth to another big event.
It officially started at nine o'clock on the first of March, with the gathering of students and citizens at four locations - the intersection of Vardarska Street and Jovan Ristić Street, near the Cathedral, Niteks and the Faculty of Medicine. Whistles and vuvuzelas sounded everywhere; there were various specialties at the food stands - from crackers to princess donuts. On Friday, after several days of hiking, demonstrators, mostly students, arrived from Bor, Kragujevac, Kruševac, Pirot, Vranje... For them, it was the crown after serious efforts and overcoming their own borders.
One of them is the young actor Pavle Veselinović, who started the march on foot in Kruševac, two days before the protest. "On that way, I met many people with whom I became very close. It was a huge challenge, with doubts, a drop in energy... At the end of the first day, when I arrived in Aleksinac, the town where we slept, and when I saw the reactions of the people who welcomed us, it gave me back my strength. Those people believed in us," he told "Vreme".
THE WORD (IZ) CONSTITUTIONAL PATRIOTISM
Although independent media covered the protest hour by hour, the camera cannot capture such a unique atmosphere, as well as many moments that passed under the radar.
Đorđe Nikolić, a resident of Niš who studies in Belgrade, tells "Vreme" that his hometown has never looked like it did on the day of the protest. "The cameras could not record how many people were actually present, not only on the Square but also in all the surrounding streets. I think this is the biggest protest so far, and it represents the penultimate point, before Belgrade. In addition, we know that changes always start from Nis, as was the case in the nineties and the 2000s. Nis is the first city where SNS lost the elections", reminds Đorđe.
This protest also had something different from previous ones - the Student Edict.
"Enacted in Niš, March 1, 2025 - We, the students and free citizens of Serbia, gathered in the city of Niš, in a city that has witnessed new ideas and changes, in a city that has been a crossroads of history for centuries, and where freedom has always found its way, we bring this edict by which we proclaim the values we are fighting for, as a pledge of the future and the state in which we want to live", it was heard after 18 p.m.
Nikola Ilić, a student at the Faculty of Electronics in Niš, participated in the drafting of the text of the Student Edict. He perceives that symbolic document as a list of basic human values that should serve as a guide for everyone: "These are the values we are fighting for. In this respect, the provisions themselves speak of what we need most at this moment, which is above all freedom, the rule of law, dignity... These values should be taken for granted in modern society, but we see a gross violation of each of them every day. First of all, we refer to the Constitution and remind us every day that every word of the Constitution must be respected", he explains to "Vreme".
He adds that he sees the edict as a mutual promise of the students. "In this struggle, we managed to expose the skeleton that stands as an obstacle to the fulfillment of the demands. And if we were to succeed in reaching a state where the provisions mentioned in the edict are a reality, I believe that the fulfillment of the demands would not be a problem. The edict is addressed to the entire people of Serbia and whoever is in power would have to respect it," Ilić explains.
If society wants the provisions of the edict - such as the rule of law, freedom of the media, equality of all before the law, government that serves the people, and not the other way around - to be realized and become the reality of this country, changes must occur. And the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, Natalija Jovanović, believes that this document advocates for new rules in society. "All the values important for a humane society that takes care that citizens have equal rights, that they enjoy the freedoms that belong to them, such as freedom of the media, speech, speaking out and social engagement, have been suppressed," she told "Vreme". He also points out that society has changed and that it can no longer return to "factory settings": "Society has changed and there is no going back to the old way. Many felt freedom and understood its importance. The right way is to support children and support the future. This was also recognized by the old people who barely have a living, who came out with great difficulty, but they did it in order to give a warm welcome to the army that marched into our hearts".
PROFESSOR SOLIDARITY
Trg kralja Aleksandra, just a five-minute walk from the city center, was the main location where citizens set up food and drink stands. One quite unusual stand was located at the very corner of the street. Already around three o'clock in the afternoon, it was completely empty. It was a stand set up by the professors of the "Mija Stanimirović" School of Electrical Engineering.
"Today we heartily prepared and made about 200 portions of beans, which were gone in a little more than an hour. The energy is incredible. Our graduates are at a standstill and we really hope for a positive result," said one of the professors.
This school is currently under partial blockade, and the professor tells "Vreme" that the students work hard and participate in protests.
Professor Gordana Arsić adds that everything was ready at her school to host students from other cities and spend the night there: "We hosted the First and Second Kragujevac high schools and other students from other cities. The entire organization of the protest was truly incredible. At the same time, it is an organization without a leader. We were in communication with other schools and agreed on everything spontaneously. We immediately decided that the building of the Stevan Sremac and Bore Stanković high schools, which is near the center, would be triage center with doctors and masseurs".
There was no coordinator, but only many proposals and open discussion. Professor Arsić says that, even if she previously knew in theory how the plenum works, now she has experienced it herself. Niš professors adopted the decisions very quickly, and according to her, everything happened as planned.
"Everyone participated and worked. Those of us who went deeply into the organization of the protest functioned like bees for the last four or five days. I always wondered how bees do everything so precisely and perfectly. And then I realized that, in our case, it was about positive energy, about the need for each of us to do as much as possible, to contribute as much as possible. Even a large number of Niš fitness clubs and gyms helped, donating mats."
REBELLED AND AWAKENING
At the protest, the citizens showed a critical attitude towards all the problems of this society, from the non-functioning of institutions to the lack of justice in various social processes, says professor from the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Faculty of Philosophy Neven Obradović. "From that point of view, the protests have great significance. This protest brought a good civic atmosphere to the city of Niš and managed to send a message about the unity of different social and ideological views with the idea that changes in society are necessary if we want to have a healthier future," adds Obradović. His students, by the way, participated in the production of a live broadcast of the protest from the television studio at that faculty, and led the program. As he told "Vreme", from the beginning to the end of the program, approximately 110.000 people came to watch their broadcast.
"Another Serbia has woken up and is rebelling more and more," says Đorđe Stanković, MP and politician from Niš, from the National Movement of Serbia. He says for "Vreme" that this protest once again showed that Nis was ready for changes even before June 2, when the local elections were held. They happened then, Stanković recalls. It is clear that in those local elections, Niš was the closest of all the cities and municipalities in Serbia to not being progressive anymore. Therefore, the symbolism of the protest was added and in that - a large number of Serbian citizens were mostly concentrated in Mediana, the only municipality governed by the opposition, not the government. Finally, Stanković adds that it is very important that all "levels" of society responded to the protest. There were children and high school students, students and professors, parents and elders, actors and politicians...
EVERYTHING IS COMPENSATED EXCEPT LIFE
When it comes to the plan for tomorrow, Nišlije are preparing for a protest in Belgrade on March 15. According to many, he is the key. Outgoing Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said that by then there will be a "resolution of the situation regarding the protests", adding that they are the cause of the country's economic problems. And the President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, said that March 17 is the deadline for students to return to classes, because otherwise they will lose the year. She seems to have turned a blind eye and extended the already broken deadline for faculties to start working until March 3.
Professors with whom "Vreme" spoke believe that everything can be compensated except for life. "They have been stealing our right to a good and real life for three decades. We already had such experiences, during the bombing and during the October demonstrations, when the university and schools were not working. I don't see that those generations were overly damaged. In the end, those generations gave birth to such students and pupils. And I thank them for that," says dean Natalija Jovanović. She then explains that the professors have created a program to make up for exams and classes. Finally, he adds, education should be aimed at teaching the child to think, to communicate in the right way and to solve certain problems. And that's exactly what students are teaching this society today.
Arrests out of the blue, banishment from the country, beatings... All this happened to us in the last week alone. The Serbian Progressive Party, born from the foam left behind by their spiritual father Vojislav Šešelj, is returning to its roots. I can't escape from myself
"The levers of power are not in their hands," said Bishop Grigorije. "But there is something in the Holy Scriptures that I like very much, and that is that the power of God is revealed in weakness. So, all worldly power is on one side. And on the other side, in the hands of these young men and women is the weakness of this world. But in their weakness, the power of God or God's justice appears. That is why they are at such a great advantage."
The regime and its media have been trumpeting the "civil war" for months, and the government is the only one that has a patent for peace and stability - of course, with the help of the propaganda machine and the use of force. "It is a propaganda tactic of SNS that says: 'violence is everywhere, terrorists surround us, but we are here to save you,'" explains communication professor Jelena Kleut for "Vreme".
Students and citizens who accompany them on these walking feats, were welcomed as the most native together with those who came the day before from other places. A dove of peace was also released on the stage next to the promenade along the river - this symbolic gesture of the two students is the most impressive gesture of understanding and respect between the Bosniak and Serbian peoples since the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia
The three-day parliament for the promotion of Aleksandar Vučić and his Movement for the People and the State was realistically a fiasco. But it was first of all conceived as a media spectacle for regime television directed by court promoter Željko "DJ Žeks" Mitrović, with scenography and iconography adapted to the Serbian political market.
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
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