What should be done and who should do it

The students of Serbia first occupied their faculties, and then they went from them to the streets and roads of Serbia to spread the rebellion on foot, from village to village, from city to city, walking or running, from Belgrade to Novi Sad, from Kragujevac to Belgrade, from Niš to Kragujevac... Their message is as simple as it is revolutionary in a corrupt, progressive country: they demand a functional legal state, rule of law, equality of all before the law, responsibility for crimes committed. They are actually asking for the implementation of what would represent the end of the autocracy headed by Aleksandar Vučić

This generation of students, with their determination to persevere on this postulate of parliamentary democracy, perseverance, creativity, solidarity, calmness, maturity in considering actions, found everyone - both the government and opposition political parties, their teachers and professors, but also parents, grandparents, tired citizens of Serbia, apathetic and resigned to the fate of being unable to do anything against the force with which Vučić protects his power - which is based on the theft of elections, control of institutions and media, corruption and intimidation.

"Where did you, children, come from", can be heard from older fellow citizens, those who for years reproached young people that they are apolitical, that they are not interested in anything, that they live in some parallel worlds of their own on social networks and the Internet while the country turns into Dembelia for thieves and primitives, and now, wherever they go, they are greeted by beaming faces with home-made rolls and apples or day by day closely follow what they have come up with in their fight for justice and the criminal responsibility of all those involved in the deadly fall of the canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad.

photo: vladimir sporčić / tanjug

The gnashing of the teeth of the President of the Republic, his threats and the reign of terror of the local kabadahs subordinate to him, who for a decade or more have caused citizens to fear resistance and to publicly say what they think, and Vučić's manipulations and attempts to bribe these young people, leave them completely indifferent. They saw through him as a political matchmaker and don't give a single penny for his rants on television and false promises. He could bark at the moon with the same effect.

That's why the citizens of Serbia perceive the rebellious students as liberators from the abnormality that, consciously or unconsciously, has been oppressing a large number of people for a very long time. They welcome them with tears in their eyes - joy because of the hope they have awakened. The revolt of Serbian students sets off waves of emotions, their relaxed fearlessness, which, as if they are not even aware of it, seems contagious, liberating.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, I cry all the time when I see them, I just sob and wipe away my tears", can also often be heard from people who had lost all hope for change, and now seize every opportunity to join the student protests and show that they have a backbone.

We are witnessing the largest peacetime social uprising in the history of Serbia. The idolatry and cult of personality paid for and carefully built around Aleksandar Vučić fundamentally shook the students' contempt and resistance, which the citizens very quickly began to idealize.

While some believe that the breaking point has been reached and that the government usurped by the Serbian Progressive Party with its satellites cannot survive this, others think that the outcome is still uncertain.

First of all, there is still no way out of this deep crisis in the fragmented Serbian society.

PANICKED MEDIOCRITY

Retired university professor and MP Vladeta Janković believes that after the tragedy in Novi Sad, Serbia will never be the same again.

"We have been in a crisis for a long time, but it is more obvious now because under pressure it is clear how rotten the system is and to what extent the institutions, which form the basis of our survival, are corrupt and scattered. Behind the cherished image of the leader of the nation hides ordinary, panicked mediocrity. If this people's struggle were to die out without lasting results, it would be like a concrete canopy falling on Serbia, covering its entire surface", says Janković for "Vreme".

The current political crisis and the wave of protests, according to his assessment, will not end so soon. He predicts that the ruling elite will try to cover up the crisis it has entered using already known methods - threats, provocations and violent incidents.

"There can only be one way out - elections. It goes without saying that they must be held under new, equal conditions and with the complete exclusion of even the least possibility of theft, and this means that the pressure must not ease until the final recognition of the election outcome," Janković believes.

And in the event that extraordinary parliamentary elections are called, it is necessary for the opposition to gather into a single movement.

THE POWER OF EXPERTS

The balance of power between the two poles of Serbia is still ongoing. While the students, as an increasingly large celestial body, attract an increasing number of smaller bodies into their orbit and unyieldingly insist on the fulfillment of their demands, the top of the Serbian Progressive Party, loyal to Vučić, continues to control all the levers of power and there should be no doubt that they will abuse them if necessary, as before. To what extent, that is an unknown in the solution equation of this situation.

While the students are planning a new peak of their protests at the Meeting in Kragujevac, where their representatives from Nis, Novi Sad and Belgrade went on foot demonstrating their fearlessness and willingness to make sacrifices, Vučić is planning a rally similar to the recent one in Jagodina in Sremska Mitrovica in Vojvodina, which he began to call "Northern Serbia". At that gathering, which will be attended by the inevitable Dodik, some kind of "Vojvodina declaration" will be adopted directed against the fictitious, Lalin separatist forces allegedly led by Dinko Gruhonjić, and for whom Pink and Informer, for those "separatists" from Vučić's propaganda kitchen, claim to be the real initiators and financiers of the student protests. As grotesque as it sounds, focus groups must be good, ie. they reacted with valid fear, because Vučić keeps repeating it now.

If viewed from the point of view of critics of the government, this balance of power seems more and more like a terror to the core of a corrupt minority over the majority.

Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Nikola Jović, just like Vladeta Janković, believes that Serbia has not actually fallen into a crisis, but that it is trying to get out of a crisis that has been going on for thirteen years because the top of the Serbian Progressive Party "usurped state institutions and public resources".

"The dynamics of the last three months clearly show the trend of shifting the balance in favor of students. Their power grows and expands as other social groups join them in disobedience - farmers, educators, artists, doctors, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and especially citizens in smaller towns throughout Serbia who are increasingly freed from fear. As a result of all that, Serbia is today the healthiest since the Serbian Progressive Party came to power," says Jović for "Vreme".

At the same time, the pressure exerted by students on the system, together with other rebellious social groups, has not yet reached its peak.

"I expect more thoughtful activities of students in the blockade and an awakened society, but also new failed attempts by the Serbian Progressive Party to repair the damage. I certainly do not expect the government to publish complete documentation about the fall of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, because that would mean political self-destruction for them. The fulfillment of all student demands and the opening of all documentation can only be expected from a new government - a government in which the Serbian Progressive Party will no longer exist".

But how to get such a government?

Jović sees one of the possible solutions in the creation of a team "made up of professional people, with knowledge and integrity".

"Given that there is no credible opposition party power in society, the only power that can be created very quickly and authentically, gain the authority to govern and gain the trust of citizens is the power of the most expert people, the power of knowledge and integrity. This is the path from which Serbia must not deviate", concludes our interlocutor.

IT IS NEEDED "SERIOUS" DIALOGUE

The question, however, is how the state leadership around Vučić evaluates the current pressure on the streets. Does he still think that he will be able to get out of everything without fatal damage and prolong the dismissal, even if he doesn't siphon off all the billions intended for the Expo through his companies that get jobs within the framework of the specialized exhibition without a tender?

Economist and former ambassador of Serbia to the USA Ivan Vujacic perceives the current political situation as a complete delegitimization of the Serbian Progressive Party's government.

"First of all, the elections held in December 2023 were illegitimate and we have international testimony about this in the form of the ODIHR report. The media is controlled, which we can see best in the example of RTS, which took so long to start minimally reporting on what is happening at the student blockades. Institutions have also lost their legitimacy and this is what the students are pointing to with their demands. The government does not want to admit that there is a crisis of legitimacy in the country, it treats students as children playing, not as young people fighting for the rule of law," Vujacic told Vreme.

He sees dialogue as a potential solution, but only a "serious" dialogue in case the government stops taking the situation in the country and student demands lightly.

"The Serbian Progressive Party must understand the seriousness of all this and stop slandering students. If he does not do that, the solution could be to delegate some professional people to some functions, for example university professors".

From 2002 to 2009, Vujacic was the ambassador of Serbia to the United States of America. Since then, the political situation, the government and the complete foreign policy of the two countries have gone through numerous changes.

Much is said about the influence of Donald Trump, who has triumphantly returned to the White House, on the crisis in Serbia. Vujacic, however, believes that the USA is not currently focused on the events in the Western Balkans. "Trump is not interested in our political crisis. In Serbia, he is only interested in his hotel".

photo: lazar novaković / fonet

PEOPLE'S REBELLION

The government insists that "all student demands have been met", and that the students should accept the "outstretched hand" of the President of Serbia. At the same time, pro-regime analysts and journalists advocate the thesis that the student protests are actually "illegal", "anti-state" and "anti-Serbian", that someone pays for and organizes them, and they refer to the "justified anger of a quiet, majority, decent" Serbia and "fear conflicts on the streets", because some dark forces (unnamed, except for Dink Gruhonjić) want to cause a civil war in order to remove President Vučić because only he is the leader of Serbia. kanda independent and strong and an economic tiger.

Former Member of Parliament and political analyst Đorđe Vukadinović sees as a significant factor in this rebellion in society that the usual practice of the SNS in the fight with dissidents does not go over well with students. He does not perceive the protests as exclusively student, but as a form of popular rebellion.

"This movement is much broader and shows the amount of dissatisfaction with this government. This protest has an important, ethically deep political side, and that is the fight against social injustice, a little bit against global capitalism, and there are also some elements of social revolution", says Vukadinović for "Vreme".

Until now, the government's effective strategies to tarnish and compromise any form of resistance, now turn out to be fruitless, because young people are very enthusiastic among the citizens who follow them in their rebellion.

"Students are much more inconvenient for the government than on-call and easy targets like the opposition. These protests have no leader, regardless of the fact that the government is trying to target some individuals who seem like convenient targets. This is a great advantage of the unusual plenum-type organization, that is, a form of direct democracy," explains Vukadinović.

MULTIPLE SCENARIOS FOR GETTING OUT OF THE CRISIS

When all this was written, the question still remains open: where did Serbia go? What is the way out of this crisis? What should happen for the prosecution to question Aleksandar Vučić, who claimed to know who committed the criminal act of illegal demolition in Hercegovačka Street and is publicly committing the criminal act of concealing the perpetrator of the criminal act? How much pressure must there be on the streets and in society in order for Vučić and his team, which equates itself with the state, to agree to the conditions for the introduction of a functional legal state, which would disempower it? What else would have to happen for Vučić to recognize the formation of a transitional government as the best option for himself, which would pave the way for fair and democratic elections, as demanded by the opposition parties?

The goal of the student protests is to change the autocratic political system into a functional parliamentary democracy, which actually means a change of government, although it is not pronounced. However, in order for it to bear fruit, the rebellion against lawlessness would have to eventually involve state institutions: the police, the prosecution, courts, ministries, Kolubara, EPS, public transport...

Even in that case, the greatest strength of these autochthonous student protests - their resolute rejection of false dialogue with the authorities, but also distancing themselves from currently invisible opposition political organizations - would simultaneously turn out to be their greatest weakness. At the end of this time, if the fire of rebellion is not extinguished, the opposition political parties will have to take the stage to bring about a change of government, and they will not be able to do that unless perhaps the biggest political force in the country - the students - stands behind them. Otherwise, society descends into anarchy.

Another possibility is that the students themselves form a political organization, but in that case their current purity, the pristine ideals that are reflected in them and for which they are supported by so many people, would cease to exist. Then they would have to declare themselves about the European Union and Kosovo and Metohija, for example, and their rebellion is acceptable to everyone on the other side of the SNS precisely because it is neither ideologically nor politically defined.

The third outcome, provided that the protests do not begin to subside, is a horror scenario with which the pro-regime media and analysts on their payroll scare people: that the interest movement in power, regardless of the force of the mass protests, does not agree to conditions that would disempower it, that it manages to maintain control over the state's levers of power and key institutions and causes conflicts in the streets convinced that it will be able to blame "anti-Serb elements" and "foreign mercenaries" for them and try to took special units to the streets to restore order and crush the student rebellion.

It would be as suicidal for the government as agreeing to the establishment of the rule of law, but with tragic consequences, which does not mean that this possibility can be dismissed. Because long-lasting and untouchable power can cloud judgment and the idea of ​​one's own strength. Just so that it won't be too late when Aleksandar Vučić washes himself with cold water and regains consciousness.