A Serbia worth fighting for

In these heated days, there is euphoria and great hope, but also fear among the citizens. The fear that the current protests will subside over time, that everything will return to "normal" and that it will progressive government to continue with the coastless, ignorant, bandit and arrogant rule, and that they will deal with all those who are recognizable "rebels" in some way. Our interlocutor Gojko Božović says that this is still not possible: "The point has been passed after which nothing is the same for society or the regime. People are afraid until they see the possibility of change. When they feel it, they no longer agree to fear and injustice, blackmail and violence."

Božović is one of the most prominent Serbian publishers (the founder of "Archipelago"), a writer, poet, essayist, and unlike many others from the world of literature, he is not afraid to express a critical attitude, he does not shy away from being determined by the harsh reality and try to do something to change it. He is one of the initiators of the civic platform ProGlas, which brings together intellectuals, activists, artists and others who share similar values ​​and want to bring society out of the den it is currently in.

WEATHER: Most citizens, politicians, analysts do not hide their amazement at the events that followed the tragedy in Novi Sad, that is, they are surprised by the long-lasting, mass, broadband riot of citizens that spread to the whole country, in which the students are absolutely in the lead. Are you surprised too?, or else you assumed that somewhere in this society such a strong and creative energy of resistance is crouching and waiting?

GOJKO BOŽOVIĆ: Social processes, no matter how much we deal with them, participate in them or desire them, are not always predictable. For a long time it was visible that Serbia was seething with dissatisfaction. Whoever wanted to, could see it in big and small places, and among the young, and among the middle-aged, and among the elderly. All the inactions of the progressive regime came to pay. All this lasted for a long time because there was no real political articulation in the resistance to the regime. The economic crisis is deepening, social inequalities are more pronounced, and corruption has become the common law of the progressive bourgeoisie. The regime entered the phase of decadence four or five years ago. Until then, things were covered up, even if unskillfully, but since then everything has been revealed: new riches, new power, new status, old arrogance. It was the crowning glory of a regime that has hit the wall several times in the last year. Reality has rebelled against the propaganda on which this government rests. The first such moment was the elections in December 2023. The regime retained power, but lost its legitimacy irreversibly. And it became clear to many of his voters that he is ruling without genuine electoral support.

By trying to impose the lithium mine project in Jadr against the will of the vast majority of the public, the regime lost its social legitimacy. Since coming to power, the regime has been paying for international support with national resources. The rebellion that broke out in the villages and towns of western Serbia in the summer of 2024, and then spread to the entire country, showed that society is against the regime. When the canopy of the railway station fell in the Novi Sad tragedy, at that moment the progressive propaganda about modernization and construction feats that are changing the face of the country collapsed into dust and ashes. Behind that propaganda, the naked face of the corrupt regime appeared before the people. Capital construction disappeared before capital corruption. The victims of Novi Sad did not only suffer from negligence and incompetence, but also from corruption.

Therefore, I am not surprised by the mass resistance, which is becoming more massive and more determined every day, but I did not expect that at this moment the backbone of that rebellion would be young people. It is the best thing that has happened to Serbia in the last twenty years.

Unlike previous protests, these are decorated with creativity and different, new rhetoric, a developed culture of resistance that contributed to rebellion becoming a kind of trend among young people. Do you agree with that statement and where does such vibrancy come from where we thought it was actually not there?

The rebellion of young people, students and high school students, introduced a whole series of new elements into the social and political life of Serbia. In the first place, the student revolt renewed hope in Serbia. The students turned on the light and that light cannot be extinguished. That cheerfulness, that liveliness, that triumph of life and new ideas, that freedom from old forms, old and outmoded thinking, old fears and malignant propaganda - that is the breath of freedom that Serbia longed for, but had neither the luck nor the strength to take it. get home. These young people speak excellently, they perform confidently, they organize themselves well, they don't hate anyone, they are not influenced by propaganda, nor by the dominant channels of communication under the administration of the regime. When you look at the videos these young people make, the speeches they make at protests, the way they manage their accounts on social networks, how they shape their slogans or articulate their demands, that is Serbia worth fighting for, these are creative and innovative breakthroughs like are needed by this society.

In particular, I must emphasize one valuable, perhaps crucial dimension. It is a generation without authority. Many thought that it was not good and that some authority must be had, but they often forgot that authority and values ​​are by no means the same thing. They have values ​​but no authority. My generation, generations older than mine, even generations younger than mine had authority and usually could not imagine a world without authority. With this generation of young people, any authority is constantly questioned and deserved again and again. If it is deserved at all. In the authoritarian order, young people laughed in the face of the supreme leader and his cult of personality. This is the greatest danger for an autocratic regime. When they uttered the sentence: "You are not in charge", the downfall of Aleksandar Vučić's regime began. How long this shutdown will last now depends more on society, how much it will step up to support students, than on the regime itself. Just as they do not tolerate external authorities, young people do not tolerate internal authorities either. So this protest is going on without student leaders, which has usually been the biggest problem of student movements. This created an intractable problem for the regime. The regime has done well with centralized political parties and events, but it is not doing well with this decentralized insurgency.

Da, the regime has been relatively good at managing the protests so far. There seems to be no valid answer now not only because the protest is decentralized but also because all of their known defense mechanisms, which involve lies, subterfuge, aggression, attacks and the president's camp, read like a primer. How much the government contributed to the spread of the rebellion with its clumsy reactions?

Fighting against new generations is like fighting against the arrival of new seasons. Same result. Just as the Danube cannot wash the bloody hands of the self-proclaimed builders of our only possible future, the Danube cannot be stopped either. Young people who have so surely entered the social scene have no reason to leave it again. The sooner the regime realizes this, the better for everyone. The student rebellion deepened and expanded the base of dissatisfaction in Serbia. They turned the existing dissatisfaction into a central social issue, they put it in front of the public, and since all communication channels were closed to them, they focused on the streets and squares, organizing some of the most massive and impressive gatherings in the modern history of Serbia. I haven't felt so good and fulfilled for a long time as I did when I was standing in the immense mass of the world, mostly younger than me, at Slavia Belgrade and absorbed with all senses that rhythm of spontaneity, freedom and vital life force. In the whirlwind of events, we sometimes forget the obvious facts. In the last six months, in Serbia, two of the biggest protest movements since the fall of the Berlin Wall have been taking place: this summer against lithium mines, this winter of our discontent against corruption, which is ravaging the state budget and already killing people.

The government is using three strategies against the student rebellion. For a time, she relied on stalling, hoping the winter, holidays and weather would take their toll and dilute the protest. It turned out to be a foolish hope: the causes of the protests are too deep to end just like that. Another strategy was to invoke some form of electoral engineering, usually an unconstitutional advisory referendum on the President of the Republic. This was rejected by the public, and especially by students, who were even less interested in it than in housing loans. The story of home loans reveals the true nature of this regime. He believes that everything and everyone can be bought. He believes that there are no values ​​other than money. The way young people rejected the regime's offer shows not only their self-awareness, but also that this is the generation that will restore the social values ​​that this regime destroyed, suppressed or portrayed as unnecessary. The third strategy is used by the regime all the time and it contributed to the spread of the protests. It is a combination of violent rhetoric and physical violence that in some cases only by sheer and miraculous luck did not turn into a tragedy. That violent rhetoric and that physical violence are so great that it is clear that the regime is keeping open the option of further radicalization. It is, however, the road of no return. You can't rule like that for long. Serbia will not suffer repression.

If someone asked you who organizes the protests, what would you say?

The answer is simple, and simple answers cannot be original. Protests are organized by students who participate in them. Those protests are healing because they showed that changes are possible and because they unfolded the layers of fear accumulated in this society, but also because they show that society does not need leaders or endless commanding monologues, but agreement, cooperation and understanding.

However, again we encounter the problem of the political articulation of the rebellion. This is something that is a constant in anti-Vučić protests. Many are calling for a general strike, but what is the next move if it happens? It would be logical to form a transitional government that would organize free and fair elections. No, we hear from the authorities that they will never agree to such a thing?

A transitional government is the best solution for all actors of the social crisis, but it is also the best solution for the crisis itself. Our circumstances are not ordinary, our fall is deep. There is not a single institution that has remained unscathed in the years of progressive government. Trust has been destroyed, customs have been destroyed, forms of social and political communication have been destroyed. A transitional government with a mandate of six to nine months, which would finally prepare free and fair elections and stop unprecedented corruption, is in the interest of the entire society. In the face of a strong demand from society, the regime will withdraw.

But what if he doesn't back down and agree to it? Political scientists say that there are two preconditions that can lead to the government agreeing to a transitional government. One is yes., as a result of the protest, there is a serious split within the government structures, especially those who have power. Are there any indications that this is happening?, that is, is it realistic that such a thing can happen?

Milosevic fell not only when he was pressured by his opponents but when he was rejected by his system. The system did this at the time when it understood that Milosevic was no longer a source of security but a source of danger for a wider circle of members of the regime. The current regime is specific in that it has destroyed every system. Instead of any system, everything is decided by one man and a narrow circle of people around him, very often without any formal party and state functions. It is, therefore, an alienated center of power, based on strong interests, propaganda and the cult of personal power. This is both good and bad news. Bad news because such alienated centers of power easily break all ties with reality. Good news because it is a provisional measure whose duration depends on many factors that are not easy to reconcile, and now he has faced the biggest crisis since coming to power.

photo: marija janković

And the other one is - pressure from outside. We know that transitional governments in some countries were formed when the West exercised a strong influence, continuous pressure. Is this possible?, according to you, it can happen in Serbia too? Developed countries seem to be quite, ambivalent to say the least. And they also found themselves in the misery of their problems.

In Serbia, everyone realized their interests except the citizens of Serbia. It is time for citizens of Serbia to articulate and represent their interests. The regime does not represent the interests of Serbian citizens. The interests of the regime and the interests of society are in a dramatic split. The international support that the regime enjoys from different addresses is a consequence of geopolitical interests. Democracy always better recognizes the interests of its society and always provides better responses to other interests. I am convinced that this society has enough strength to fight for political freedom, the restoration of democracy and institutional order.

By the way, how realistic is the hope of regime analysts that Trump will lead to a complete change in world conditions, that is, that he will provide strong support to Aleksandar Vučić? How does that look to you?, I mean the attitude of the local public towards him?

Just as it constantly produces enemies, so the government constantly produces allies. He produces them easily, and forgets them even more easily. All this is another form of the regime's megalomania, the cost of which will be transferred to the people and the state. The role of that megalomania is clear: emphasizing the historical and international role of the regime leader and spin that things are going in the right direction. The rebellion of the young people showed that spin doesn't work anymore. For some, it was effective for a long time, but we can see that those ranks are falling away.

If a transitional government is formed, we can already sense the problems with its formation. Who will be in that government?? Individuals claim that it must be an expert government. Sounds nice., but how to get there? What could be the role of opposition parties?

The idea of ​​a transitional government goes beyond the question of a place in it. It should certainly, at least in a significant part, be expert, and its action could not be exclusively ideological in any sense. Fair elections will resolve political relations and ideological issues, and the most effective way to fair elections is a transitional government. As for the opposition parties, it seems to me that it would be most useful for them to build their committees and unite their forces at this time.

For the end, what ProGlas plans in the future - whether and in what way it will expand its area of ​​operation? Although the rebellion spread to small towns in Serbia, even those where citizens do not have access to traditional independent media, that is, they live in a kind of darkness, one gets the impression that a lot of work needs to be done in them, so that people can break their fear and understand what is happening around them.

ProGlas recently published the first part of the Program of Measures for "The Day After". Those 18 measures from six areas (judiciary, economic policy, electoral system, media, ecology and security) contain some of the key steps that every democratic government should take in the first six or 12 months of its work. We will soon publish a proposal for measures in some other areas as well. The proposed measures were created in consultation with a large number of experts from various fields. These measures are now the basis for a big conversation with the citizens of Serbia, which ProGlas initiated in the new cycle of forums that we hold in different parts of Serbia. The proposed measures are non-ideological and unifying, based on expert insights and social interest. While the regime divides, targets and discriminates, we should gather around concrete ideas and proposals that are in the interest of all. Every citizen of Serbia, regardless of his basic ideological note or his view of the world, can stand behind these measures.

Another important area that ProGlas deals with is the gathering of local civil movements into Free Organizations of Serbia (SOS). Those movements confirmed recognition and value in their places. The Network of Free Organizations of Serbia will make them more effective at the local level and recognizable at the national level. Finally, but by no means least, we do all the time what ProGlas has been doing from the beginning: we invite and encourage citizens to get involved in the great undertaking of change and renewal of this country. Nothing will happen by itself, we cannot wait for a miracle, nor for someone else to solve all our problems. Some of these problems last a long time and have waited for us. And we must not postpone solving those problems, transferring it to one of the next generations, nor would it be fair to leave young people alone in the honorable rebellion they started. Out of the problems we created or inherited, they made their own generational struggle. It wouldn't be fair to leave them alone in that fight.