“WE DON’T WANT VIOLENCE, THE GOVERNMENT IS LOSING SUPPORT”: Blockaded Students Speak Out About Major Vidovdan Protest!

There will be no violence at the large student protest on June 28, because students are not interested in violence, but in Serbia, stated representatives of “Students in Blockade” in Vienna. They expressed confidence that the student list will win the parliamentary elections if they are called soon.

At today’s panel discussion “Student Protests in Serbia: Impact, Challenges, and Perspectives,” organized by the Vienna Forum for Journalism and Media (FJUM), university professors supporting the protesting students said they do so because of the values the students uphold.

Luka Opruc, a second-year student at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, said that the Vidovdan protest in Belgrade, called by Students in Blockade, will be non-violent, as they are not interested in violence, but in Serbia.

Opruc assessed that the goal of framing “pro-government students” is to conduct propaganda to divert attention from important issues that the government does not want to discuss.

Responding to questions, Opruc said that the reason protesting students do not cooperate with opposition parties is that citizens have lost faith in these parties in recent years.

“I think that’s reasonable when you look at years of protests that haven’t brought much new. We are forming a list of professionals. We are aware that we will have enormous responsibility when it comes to leading society,” said Opruc.

He stated that students will soon, if elections are called quickly, come out with a complete program, whose details are being worked on, and added that they will “have a plan for all areas.”

“If we don’t win, we’ll see. We are ready for anything. We are starting courses for students so they can monitor the electoral process. The courses are organized by professors and students who already have such experience. We are ready to do something big for our country,” Opruc added.

Ivona Marković, a second-year student at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, said they hope for early elections and is confident of a victory for the student list.

“We must prepare for that, to see what the prerequisites are and, of course, for the protest on June 28,” Marković added.

Repression and Deteriorating Conditions

Jelena Kleut, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, stated that the atmosphere in that city is tense, as students and professors face repression and arrests.

“It is disturbing that groups of hooligans are threatening students. We recently had an attack on a student, which is the 11th attack in Novi Sad, a city that is the center of the rebellion, because the anger over the canopy collapse is still present. People are seeking accountability, and we don’t know who is responsible. Only five people are in prison, the rest have been released. High-ranking politicians are not in prison,” said Kleut.

Kleut said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is “taking revenge on university professors,” who receive only 12 percent of their regular income, warning that this brings many of her colleagues to the brink of existence, as they lack money for electricity and heating.

She stated that professors now suspect that the government plans to restructure universities, i.e., to grant greater rights to private universities in order to practically replace state ones.

Declining Government Support

Slobodan Marković, a professor of political anthropology at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, said that “real research is currently impossible” until students announce who will be on their electoral list, pointing out that it is also unknown how many opposition parties will participate in the elections, and how many will support the student list.

He stated that public opinion polls indicate that support for Aleksandar Vučić’s government is declining and added that the results of recent local elections in Zaječar and Kosjerić showed that the government would lose in larger cities if elections were held now.

Marković said that students have realized they cannot use political parties, but that this does not mean they are against them, but rather that they want to change them.

“The government campaigns every day, and it’s impossible to distinguish between a real campaign and an intention. We currently have a prime minister who doesn’t propose closing faculties, but the government is particularly angry with certain faculties, so we don’t know what will happen. We have university autonomy, which still exists. The government has met the fourth demand (of the students), for increasing university funds, but immediately after that, our incomes were withheld,” Marković said.