“WE FEEL LIKE LIBERATORS”: Students want a fair state and are ready to lose a year of college for that!

With song and police escort, shouting the slogan “Subotica – Novi Sad, we’re going to Belgrade” and “Come outside” they headed together towards Manifestation Square, where high school seniors, with the support of professors and citizens, organized a welcome, while others greeted them along the way.

Ivana Ivanović from Subotica, a Journalism student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, said that this is her first time walking, but that the first 40 kilometers were not difficult for her.

“People along all the settlements were by the road all the time and gave us water and sweets. We made the first break in Stari Žednik, where they welcomed us incredibly nicely, with a lot of food, they packed us a whole van of food and drinks. In Mali Beograd we were greeted by a smaller number of people, and in Bačka Topola again super energy, super stewards,” said Ivana.

She assessed that the north of Serbia lacked something like this, because previous walks were mostly organized further south.

“I’m glad that Vojvodina has woken up. I think it was very important for us to walk through this part of Vojvodina a bit. Considering that all parts of Serbia had some kind of tour, we were missing this. It’s somehow warm around the heart and you don’t feel tired, even though we walked almost 40 kilometers in one day,” Ivanović added.

She believes that young people have managed “to form a community and connect people who haven’t had that much closeness until now,” which she felt on the way to Bačka Topola, highlighting primarily meetings with pensioners.

“We were quite distant from pensioners, and now an older woman hugs you, whom you have never met in your life, and cries when she sees you. You feel like you’re some kind of liberator,” this young woman from Subotica explained.

As she says, she is not yet fully aware of everything that is happening, and believes that she will be able to see everything realistically only after a certain period of time.

Commenting on the public appearances of students “who just want to study,” she says that she doesn’t believe that it’s realistic because, as she says, it is known that the authorities brought people to the elections in a similar way.

“My message is that it is better to lose one year of study than ten years of life in a system that is practically not good. We walk until the demands are met,” Ivanović said.

One of the thirty or so high school seniors from Bačka Topola, who organized the welcome for guests from Subotica, was Danijela Rahinić, who assessed that everything turned out perfectly.

“I am very satisfied with how everything turned out tonight. When we welcomed them, they were really full of energy, as if they hadn’t walked from Subotica, but as if they had started from here. We sang along the way to the square all the time and everyone waved to us, it was very nice,” she said.

She added that the task they took on was not difficult for them, because they had huge support from the citizens of Bačka Topola.

The students will spend the night in the gym of the “Dositej Obradović” Grammar School and School of Economics, from where they will head to Srbobran tomorrow at 8 am, after breakfast, where the second overnight stay is planned.

A group of educational workers, citizens and high school seniors from Bačka Topola will join the people of Subotica on this journey, and among them will later be high school senior Danijela.

“In Lovćenac we welcome them at 11:30 am, from where they go to Novi Sad. I will go with them on foot from Novi Sad to Belgrade and the plan is to be in Belgrade on Friday evening. We are ready for protests,” Danijela explains.

“I know we will succeed because a large number of us have rebelled and we are aware of everything, in fact the goal is just a fair state and a fair system. We are fighting for that and there are no party affiliations, just for everything to be as it should be,” Danijela assessed.

The students from Subotica called on citizens tonight to see them off on their further journey in as large numbers as possible tomorrow.