{"id":182163,"date":"2025-07-10T14:54:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T12:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=182163"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T12:54:09","slug":"rector-dokic-on-protests-for-spiegel-they-call-us-enemies-of-the-state-and-terrorists-arrests-happen-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/rector-dokic-on-protests-for-spiegel-they-call-us-enemies-of-the-state-and-terrorists-arrests-happen-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"RECTOR \u0110OKI\u0106 ON PROTESTS FOR SPIEGEL: &#8220;They Call Us Enemies of the State and Terrorists, Arrests Happen Every Day&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;They call us anarchists, enemies of the state, and terrorists. Every day, we are attacked by the pro-government press, and the government itself,&#8221; says <strong>Vladan \u0110oki\u0107<\/strong>, Rector of the University of Belgrade, in an interview with the German magazine <strong>Spiegel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The situation is very difficult. Arrests happen every day. Students are afraid to leave their faculties \u2013 out of fear,&#8221; \u0110oki\u0107 warns in the interview for Spiegel, adding that the police recently appeared in front of the Faculty of Law, and entry to the campus is legally permitted only in exceptional cases. The Rector reminds that he publicly supported the students in his speech at that time, reports Deutsche Welle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to him, the police are reacting more harshly because the protests in Serbia, despite the summer break, are not losing intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Students and citizens are increasing pressure, including road blockades. Riots are breaking out,&#8221; \u0110oki\u0107 says, emphasizing that the authorities are therefore applying increasingly harsh measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason for the protests was the tragedy in Novi Sad, when the canopy of the Railway Station collapsed, killing 16 people. At that time, students demanded clarification of the case and a fight against corruption, but after months of peaceful gatherings, the demands became radicalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They realized that the government was not ready to respond to their demands. Now they have come to the conclusion that this can only be achieved with new elections,&#8221; \u0110oki\u0107 says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although students previously believed that fair elections were not possible under current conditions, they now plan to form their own list, which, according to the Rector, would include people who have never been involved in politics \u2013 &#8220;professors, musicians, athletes, and other representatives of civil society.&#8221; Such a list, he emphasizes, is not conceived as a party, but as an attempt to reform the system and ensure conditions for free and fair elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u0110oki\u0107 openly supports the students because, as he says, they are fighting for basic democratic principles and the future of the country. &#8220;Many of my colleagues and I support them because they demand nothing less than functional institutions and want to live in a true democracy. They are the future of our country.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">FIND OUT MORE:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fserbiantimes%2Fposts%2Fpfbid028JTLYSWo4vZ1D2BUEebhtRSs6ZznP1pa2LMBFvKj157sVQicB7VXicU5dgoWUTUUl&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"577\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to his support for the protests, the Rector has become a target for the authorities and pro-government media, reports Deutsche Welle. Several criminal proceedings are being conducted against him, and he is accused of abuse of office and discrimination against students due to the suspension of classes during the blockades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Every day, we are attacked by the pro-government press, and the government itself. They call us anarchists, enemies of the state, and terrorists,&#8221; \u0110oki\u0107 states for Spiegel, pointing out that there is also financial pressure through salary reductions and fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite this, the Rector has repeatedly spoken with Prime Minister \u0110uro Macuta, a close associate of President Vu\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As Rector, it is my duty to meet with the Prime Minister,&#8221; he explains, adding that they negotiated about enrollment for the next year and organizing online classes so that students could complete the academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);color:#c42929\" class=\"has-inline-color\">MORE TOPICS:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>VU\u010cI\u0106 ON STUDENTS: \u201cTimes come when all the social dregs, the sludge, all the worst in a society surfaces\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/texas-on-edge-these-are-the-girls-missing-from-the-camp-during-floods-search-continues-photos\/\">TEXAS ON EDGE: These are the Girls Missing from the Camp During Floods, Search Continues! (PHOTOS)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/interview-father-sasa-petrovic-the-patriarch-and-synod-do-not-constitute-the-fullness-of-the-church-but-rather-the-350000-spc-faithful-who-were-in-belgrade-on-march-15th-the-student-battle-is-our\/\">INTERVIEW, FATHER SA\u0160A PETROVI\u0106: The Patriarch and Synod do not constitute the fullness of the church, but rather the 350,000 SPC faithful who were in Belgrade on March 15th! The student battle is our last one\u2026<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/zorana-mihajlovic-accuses-dokovic-of-treason-hes-siding-with-those-who-commit-violence-and-want-independent-kosovo-video\/\">ZORANA MIHAJLOVI\u0106 ACCUSES \u0110OKOVI\u0106 OF TREASON: \u201cHe\u2019s siding with those who commit violence and want independent Kosovo\u201d (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/remembering-michael-madsen-one-of-us-i-am-also-an-immigrant-serbia-welcomed-me-and-my-heart-now-belongs-here-2\/\">REMEMBERING MICHAEL MADSEN, ONE OF US: \u201cI am also an immigrant \u2013 Serbia welcomed me, and my heart now belongs here\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/vucics-word-stronger-than-experts-highway-opens-even-though-experts-havent-signed-all-tunnel-safety-reports\/\">VU\u010cI\u0106\u2019S WORD STRONGER THAN EXPERTS: Highway Opens Even Though Experts Haven\u2019t Signed All Tunnel Safety Reports!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: Nova.rs, <strong>Foto:<\/strong> ATA Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;They call us anarchists, enemies of the state, and terrorists. Every day, we are attacked by the pro-government press, and the government itself,&#8221; says Vladan \u0110oki\u0107, Rector of the University of Belgrade, in an interview with the German magazine Spiegel. &#8220;The situation is very difficult. Arrests happen every day. Students are afraid to leave their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":176159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[492,876,674,5594,7511,113,2490,6164,886,7512],"class_list":["post-182163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serbia","tag-izbori","tag-politika","tag-protesti","tag-rektor","tag-spigel","tag-srbija","tag-studenti","tag-vladan-djokic","tag-vlast","tag-zahtevi-studenata","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182179,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182163\/revisions\/182179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}