About 150 scientists from all over the world sent a public letter of support to the student movement in Serbia and accused the regime of Aleksandar Vučić of continuous repression against students, as well as of the systematic undermining of democratic institutions, corruption, the abolition of media freedoms, and electoral irregularities.
“We strongly condemn the brutal response of the security forces towards peaceful student demonstrators, we call for the restoration of democracy in Serbia, and we demand full transparency regarding the corruption that led to the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station, in the accident that killed 16 people,” they stated in the letter.
They accused the regime and the president of Serbia, Vučić, of having systematically undermined democratic institutions, as well as having created an almost complete monopoly over information, while the elections are burdened with irregularities.
They recalled that the organization Freedom House reclassified Serbia from a “partly free” country to an “autocratic hybrid regime”.
They also stated that student and civil protests have spread to more than 400 towns and places, and that independent public opinion polls show that the majority of Serbian citizens support the students’ demands.
“The authoritarian turn in Serbia opens up fundamental questions about its suitability for membership in the European Union. Democracy in Serbia has been under siege for too long. The international community must stand with the students, recognize their legitimate aspirations, and support the restoration of democracy,” the scientists said.
They called on the EU to condition Serbia’s accession negotiations on concrete progress in the protection and respect of fundamental rights and values, and above all the rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the autonomy of universities, as well as on the condition that accountability is established for those guilty of the recent violence.
“In addition, the EU’s efforts should prioritize significant improvements to Serbia’s electoral framework, in accordance with the recommendations of the ODIHR, which are key steps towards restoring democratic standards in the country,” they stated in the letter.
The letter was signed, among others, by scientists from Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Notre Dame, the University of California, New York University, the University of Chicago, as well as from many other universities in the USA.
It was also signed by scientists from universities and scientific institutions from Austria, Sweden, Argentina, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Mexico, Albania, Germany, Ukraine, Estonia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Chile, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Portugal.
List of signatories:
Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, Stanford University, USA
Beatriz Magaloni, Stanford University, USA
Kathryn Stoner, Stanford University, USA
Michael McFaul, Stanford University, USA
Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University, USA
Larry Diamond, Stanford University, USA
Adam Przeworski, New York University, USA
Steven Levitsky, Harvard University, USA
Herbert Kitschelt, Duke University, USA
Margaret Levi, Stanford University, USA
Staffan I. Lindberg, V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University, USA
Erik Jensen, Stanford University, USA
Stanislav Jakovljević, Stanford University, USA
Srđan Keča, Stanford University, USA
Pavle Levi, Stanford University, USA
Miriam Golden, Stanford University, USA
Carles Boix, Princeton University, USA
Stephan Haggard, University of California San Diego, USA
Scott Mainwaring, University of Notre Dame, USA
Andreas Schedler, CEU Democracy Institute, Hungary
Manuel Alcántara, University of Salamanca, Spain
Martina Kaler, University of Vienna, Austria
Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University, USA
Marcelo Bergman, National University Tres de Febrero, Argentina
Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, University of Notre Dame, USA
Jennifer McCoy, Georgia State University, USA
Rachel Kleinfeld, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA
Gabriela Ippolito-O’Donnell, National University of San Martín, Argentina
Susan Stokes, University of Chicago, USA
Steven Fish, University of California Berkeley, USA
Max Cameron, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jean-Paul Faguet, London School of Economics, UK
Cristina Cucuri, Independent researcher, Ecuador
Hesham Sallam, Stanford University, USA
David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University, USA
Mary-Therese Heintzkil, Stanford University, USA
Hannah Fols, Stanford University, Hungary
Jovana Lazić, Stanford University, USA
María Ignacia Curiel, Stanford University, USA
Dominique Loton, Stanford University, USA
José Antonio Aguilar Rivera, Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Mexico
Amanda Edgell, University of Alabama, USA
Kelly Morrison, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Sokol Leshi, New York University in Tirana, Albania
Lars Lot, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Dmytro Potyekhin, Factology.Systems, Ukraine/Estonia
Milena Marinkovic, United States
Fernanda Somuano, El Colegio de México, Mexico
Nicole Burkhardt, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Edin Mujkic, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, United States
Steven Parks, University of Virginia, USA
Ilinka Ilijan, West University of Timișoara, Romania
Dejan Pavlović, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Emilija Marković, Teacher Education Faculty in Leposavić, Serbia
John Gould, Colorado College, USA
Manuel Ortiz Escamez, Social Focus, USA
Alexander De Juan, University of Osnabrück, Germany
Dina Vozab, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Krištof Gostonji, University of Osnabrück, Germany
Zoran Jovanović, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Serbia
Zdravko Kobe, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sulejman Aslami, Amsterdam City Council, Netherlands
Danijela Petrović Graovac, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Vlad Mykhnenko, University of Oxford, UK
Husnija Kamberović, University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Philosophy, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Marian Zulean, University of Bucharest, Romania
Tomislav Pletenac, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Milica Vujičić, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
W.P. (Chip) Gagnon Jr., Ithaca College, USA
Barbara Grining, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
Claudiu Tufiș, University of Bucharest, Romania
Dimitrije Stamenović, Boston University, USA
Boban Arsenijević, University of Graz, Austria
Jelena Stojković, University of Graz; University of Leipzig, Austria; Germany
Claudio Ricci, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Jelena Ignjatović, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Niš, Serbia
Grzegorz Mazurkiewicz, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Athanasios Markopoulos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Andrés Escala, University of Chile, Chile
Jacopo Friz, IRyA-UNAM, Mexico
Milena Ilišević, Western Sydney University, Australia
Vladimir Bubalo, Medical University of Graz, Austria
Đorđe Popović, UC Berkeley, USA
Salman Matan, Ohio State University, USA
Ainsley Morse, UC San Diego, USA
Owen Cole, Grinnell College, USA
Cameron Girvin, Ph.D., University of California Berkeley, USA
Vails Brown, Retired from Cornell University, USA
Iva Kosmos, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Nataša Kovačević, Eastern Michigan University, USA
Tanja Softić, University of Richmond, USA
Dubravka Sekulić, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Jonathan Hartlyn, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA
Brian Arnold, Independent researcher, USA
Dana McElvy, Central European University, Austria
Irena Pastar, University of Miami, USA
Tamara Pantić, Georgetown University Law Center, USA
Gary Shapiro, University of Richmond, USA
Vladimir Bejdo, University of California Berkeley School of Law, USA
Stanisława Kostić, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
Benjamin Capelke, UC Berkeley, USA
Vladimir Paskaljević, York University, Canada
Nicholas Tripcevich, University of California Berkeley, USA
Nela Milić, Buckinghamshire New University, UK
Miljana Radivojević, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
Alexandra Schneider Lee, University of Richmond, USA
Vera Ganun, Clarivate, USA
Mariela Mendez, University of Richmond, USA
Julio César Chavelas, Autonomous University of Guerrero, Mexico
Elizabeth Gruner, University of Richmond, USA
Katya Dianina, University of Virginia, USA
Olya Triaska Stefanovic, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Slovakia
Sandra Davidović, City University of New York, Serbia
Ana Antić, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Petr Stehlík, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Jana Baćević, Durham University, UK
Margaret Bissinger, Princeton University, USA
Mirna Stehlíková Đurasek, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Ernan Flom, Trinity College, USA
Alex Otieno, Arcadia University, USA
Raul Algarin Villalba, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Tijana Vujošević, University of British Columbia, Canada
Nikola Ilić, Georgetown University, USA
Selma Đulizarević Karanović, Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
Lazar Džamić, Goldsmiths, UK
Elena Messner, University of Vienna, Austria
Goran Lazičić, University of Graz, Austria
Angelina Iliyeva, University of Chicago, USA
Stefan Milosavljević, University of Graz, Austria
Human Harooni, Harvard University, USA
Igor Chookarin, University of Minnesota, USA
Axel Bago, Brown University, USA
Tijana Petrović, UC Berkeley, USA
Juan Masullo, University of Milan and University of Leiden, Italy and Netherlands
Elaine Papoulias, Harvard University, USA
Sergio Espuelas, University of Barcelona, Spain
Dragana Obradović, University of Toronto, Canada
Maja E. White, University of Richmond, USA
Zoran Todorović, University of Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade, RS
Martina Vukasović, Department of Government, University of Bergen, Norway
Vesna Perunović, OCAD University Toronto, Canada
Svetlana Radovanov, Beam Physics and Plasma Applications LLC, USA
Sheila Moroni, University of Florence, Italy
Marten Baes, Ghent University, Belgium
Lilian Tintori, World Freedom Congress, Spain
Dino Kadić, University of Cambridge, UK
Santiago González-Gaitán, Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Jodi Vittori, Georgetown University, USA
Đorđe Đurica, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Timothy Doub, Grinnell College, USA
Milica Popović, Institute for Cultural Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Joseph H. Lauter, USA
Emily Mele, University of Virginia, USA
Arianna McGhirk, University of Virginia and Project Democratic Futures, USA
Virginia Bonney, University of Virginia, USA
Shazka Beyerle, USA
Marija Bradaš, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Paul Fain, University of California Berkeley, USA
Miroslav Filipović, Western Sydney University, Australia
Corinne Sweeney, University of Virginia, USA
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Source: N1 / Nedeljnik, Photo: Milos Tesic / ATAImages