Protests in Serbia are becoming increasingly intense. It seems that the authorities’ harsh response is further encouraging people to join them. Soon, after the harvest, farmers could also join them, writes the German public broadcaster ARD.
“Despite a temperature of 36 degrees Celsius at 9 PM, people gather in front of the local gymnasium and chant – ‘pump it up’,” writes Christoph Wess, ARD’s correspondent in a report from a protest in Šabac, as reported by DW.
He then describes how a man on a megaphone talks about what happened to his school friend Željko Katić, “a man who helped at all student protests” and whose fish shop was robbed a few days ago.
“Demonstrators respond with whistles – against the regime, as they call the authorities in Serbia under President Aleksandar Vučić. His Serbian Progressive Party officially presents itself as conservative. It is formally associated with the European People’s Party, to which the CDU and CSU also belong. But in the 13 years since he came to power, Vučić has increasingly turned into an autocrat. Critical media receive threatening letters, demonstrators are beaten,” writes the author. The report also features the aforementioned fish shop owner, Željko Katić, who is still in shock: “Around one in the morning, three or four vandals with large masks attacked my shop. Everything is visible on the video, because we have security cameras here. Each had a hammer in hand; they smashed everything.”
The fisherman, as he tells ARD, is completely clear why his shop was demolished: because he supported the protests – by providing catering for the demonstrators. “We prepared food for students at almost every gathering. That bothered the attackers. We collected donations, cooked meals, goulash, and sausages.”
Student Doroteja: “We want a better country”
“A fisherman who provides food for students during protests and whose shop is demolished because of it – people show solidarity with such individuals,” says Doroteja, an agriculture student from Belgrade: “That truly awakens anger in all of us. This movement is no longer just a student one; it is now a broader civic protest.”
Doroteja admits that occasionally nationalists, with appropriate symbols, get mixed in with the demonstrators. But, as she says, the vast majority of the movement has completely different goals: “We want a better country. A country that will protect our children, us, and our parents – and in which we will be able to live tomorrow.”
Students were the first to point out corruption
ARD reminds that the protests began in November last year when 16 people died in Novi Sad after the collapse of the newly renovated canopy of the main railway station.
“Students were the first to point out corruption in the construction sector, and now much broader segments of society are doing the same. Today, doctors, lawyers, and even municipal councilors are taking to the streets. It is also a rather creative protest. Demonstrators have partly turned it into a sport to cross pedestrian crossings back and forth in large groups to block traffic. Spontaneous volleyball games brought the police almost to despair,” notes the author.
Farmers to join protests soon
And Pavle Grbović, an opposition MP from the Movement of Free Citizens in the National Assembly of Serbia, comments for ARD: “Fear has been broken. That was the key moment. When people in small villages rise up against local strongmen, when they no longer show an ounce of respect – that is a turning point, after which there is no return. Now the only question is whether Vučić’s political end will come this autumn or be postponed until next. But the end is inevitable.”
ARD further states: “This autumn will certainly be exciting. When the harvest ends in late August, farmers are expected to join the protests for the first time. President Vučić takes this seriously. In order to defuse criticism, he announced a kind of Agenda 2035 for September.”
“But that doesn’t deter his opponents. In the middle of hot July, they announce that the political autumn in Serbia will be at least as hot. In line with the protest slogan: Pump it up – keep going,” concludes the German journalist’s report.
Source: N1, Photo: Vladislav Mitić / Nova.rs