In addition to pro-regime media, the “Kopaćemo” movement has joined in targeting students participating in faculty blockades, publishing a list of “paid students” who they claim openly or secretly work for political parties, politicians, or foreign NGOs.
The list includes 16 students, “paid workers,” whose profiles link them to political parties, but without any evidence of funding for blockades and protests.
The “Kopaćemo” movement became active during the environmental protests in August with its list of “eco-terrorists.” Given that the goal of “Kopaćemo,” whose identity is unknown, is to promote lithium mining, students and blockades have nothing to do with their “activism,” which is why their targeting is illogical.
In addition, it is unknown whether the aforementioned movement has any power in spreading government propaganda, and whether a certain number of students will potentially give up the rebellion out of fear of being targeted.
Students on the list believe that the “task” of the list is to discredit the blockades and protests, but that it will not work even with voters of the Serbian Progressive Party.
PROČITAJTE VIŠE:
“They gave us a tailwind”
Branislav Đorđević, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, who is on both the list of “paid students” and the list of “eco-terrorists,” told Danas that he sees being on the list of “eco-terrorists” as a kind of crown, and his presence on the new list as a diamond on that crown.
“They are trying in every way to discredit us, but it no longer works even with people who are on their side. We had the opportunity to see that the President of Serbia, who should at least present himself as a serious man, told a lie about me and my girlfriend that we were fighting over money that opposition parties were giving us, a made-up story where the president is dealing with the private matters of two young students instead of dealing with the state of the country,” Đorđević explains.
We also had the opportunity to see a campaign under the control of the ruling party through Informer, he reminds us, and now they are working against students through the “Kopaćemo” movement, “which is all an attempt at spin.”
“The more fronts they attack on, we see that they are getting weaker. When an animal is scared and injured, it does everything, it bites, it scratches, whatever it takes to save itself. That’s how I see the Serbian Progressive Party regime now, they are cornered and can’t get out, we are pressing them more and more, at some point they will have to surrender. The sooner they do it, the better it will be for them,” Đorđević points out.
He believes that this list will not even affect SNS voters, because the students who are rebelling are inevitably the children of some of their voters.
“The more they attack us, the more they turn their voters away from them. A couple of my friends who are with me on the blockade of the Faculty of Philosophy, whose parents are employed in state-owned enterprises, vote for the SNS, but they are disobeying them. An example is the father of my friend who works in the Banovina building, when they wanted to lock them up, more workers rebelled and they had to give up. Those are workers who have been silent and endured all this time. Now they are rebelling, they don’t allow their children to be attacked,” Đorđević points out.
He sees the existence of the “paid students” list on the “Kopaćemo” website as an attempt to weaken the rebellion.
“It simply doesn’t work. That site is not relevant at all, they are trying to use it as a propaganda outlet, however, it doesn’t have the desired effect. It will have a counter-effect where there will be a competitive race to see who will be the next to end up on that list. They just gave us a tailwind,” concludes Đorđević.
OBJAVLJEN SPISAK STUDENATA PLAĆENIKA
— Pokret KOPAĆEMO (@kopacemo) December 11, 2024
Raskrinkali smo sve "obične studente" koji organizuju blokade, a zapravo tajno rade za opozicione političke stranke i strane NVO.
Javnost ima pravo da zna ko blokira. 👇https://t.co/VnXAUID0oD pic.twitter.com/4BcAQ83ZyB
“We don’t succumb to pressure”
Vukašin Đinović, a student at the Faculty of Science in Novi Sad and a former student of the Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Gymnasium, states that this is a new form of pressure and demotivation of students and, in general, resistance to the government. “Even when it was founded, we didn’t know who the initiators of that movement and website were. This is just another attempt at intimidation and discrediting,” Đinović points out. He doesn’t believe that students will give up further rebellion, blockades, and protests because of this targeting. “It’s not the first time that such attacks have been made. We at the Faculty of Science have already been attacked, both the dean and the former dean in the media, and several other students, precisely because we are united with the management and professors, they actively target us in the media. We don’t succumb to pressure, we will continue to fight for what our demands are,” concludes Đinović.
What does the “Kopaćemo” movement say?
The “Kopaćemo” movement published a list, as they called them, of “paid students,” who they claim openly or secretly work for political parties, politicians, or foreign NGOs in organizing illegal blockades of faculties and traffic. On the website of this movement, there are photos with detailed descriptions of the students.
“They often hide their political connections and thus mislead the public about their motives. Since the work of political parties and NGOs in Serbia is public, the public has the right to be informed about the activities of their members, sympathizers, or paid workers,” stated the “Kopaćemo” Movement.
On their website, it is also written that the list of paid students is “exclusively for informational purposes and does not serve for labeling.”
The goal of this list is to increase political and party transparency.
The public has the right to know whose political interests certain students who falsely present themselves as “ordinary” students are working for.
The list was created out of the need to prevent deceptions such as the “1 of 5 million” case, when it was only after the collapse of the movement that it was discovered that the student protests were organized and financed by political parties,” the website of the aforementioned movement states.
As a reminder, students have been blocking faculties for two weeks now, and new students are joining them every day.
READ MORE:
“NO ONE CAN DENY”: Croatia officially acknowledges genocide against Serbs in ISH (NDH)
SERBS DELIGHTED: American christmas movie filmed in popular Serbian mountain! (VIDEO)
Source: Danas, Photo: Danas/A. L.