By Enver Robelli
Serbia has been under a state of emergency for seven months now. Thousands of citizens across the country are protesting against the regime of President Aleksandar Vučić. This movement is being led by students, who for the first time in years have managed to seriously shake the foundations of power.
The mass demonstrations were sparked by the collapse of part of the roof of the train station in the city of Novi Sad in early November, which claimed the lives of 16 innocent people. For many Serbian citizens, there is no doubt that this tragedy could have been avoided if there had been no corruption and if the control institutions had functioned, in short: if Serbia had been a state with a functioning democracy and justice.
After many protests, which peaked in mid-March when about 300,000 people gathered in Belgrade, the student movement finally demanded new elections in early May. Until then, the students had shown no signs of wanting to participate in the political race, nor did they want to cooperate with any of the divided opposition parties.
While public universities remain closed, the intensity of the protests has noticeably diminished. Suddenly, President Vučić feels himself in a stronger position. In the past, he has often stated that he is ready to call new elections at any time, because he is not afraid of any political competitor. Since 2012, when Vučić's SNS party came to power, there have been four snap elections - that is, whenever the polls showed victory was certain.
Now Vučić is rejecting such a possibility. And there seems to be reason for this. Support for him and his party has fallen significantly, polls suggest. His goal now is to hold parliamentary and presidential elections at the end of 2027, when they are also due. He hopes that by then the protests will have lost momentum and the student movement will have split. If the demonstrations do not spread, Vučić, a master of power control, may achieve his goal. In a few weeks, the summer holidays will begin, and people will be more willing to go to the beach than to take to the streets.
At the same time, the regime is trying to tighten its repression against public universities, which are a hotbed of resistance. A new law on higher education has already been announced, which foresees that private universities will also benefit from public finances. Vucic has openly warned of the "collapse of the monopoly of state faculties."
Students and professors are seeing this as a serious blow to the education sector. Private universities financed by the state can be more easily managed. The working group for the new law is headed by the new education minister, Dejan Vuk Stankovic, who has been accused by students of sexual harassment. Stankovic denies the accusations. The authorities have particularly targeted the courageous rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Djokic, who has been questioned by the police.
Vučić recently hailed as heroes four of his party supporters who are in custody after brutally beating several students earlier this year. He also supported calls to block a court in Novi Sad in order to blackmail his hooligans out of prison. The independent magazine Vreme summed up Vučić’s behavior with this headline: “Madness in Serbia: Government Threatens to Block Justice.”
When a few days ago an appeals court ruled that three activists who had been held in prison for several months should be transferred to house arrest, the president called the propaganda television station “Informer” with a tirade of threats. He said that in the future there would be no place in the justice system for those judges and prosecutors who “with criminal steps” support “banditry and hooliganism.” For Vučić, the activists are “terrorists.”
This week, Vučić addressed the public with a video message: he was seen in his office modestly eating sardines. The Serbian president said that he had been worried in recent weeks, but now his "strange energy" has returned. (A2 Televizion)
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