They began with calls for accountability for the deaths of 16 people in Novi Sad. They continued with calls for early elections, the fight against corruption, and the release of arrested activists. They culminated with calls for the territorial integrity of Serbia.
Within seven months, student-led protests in Serbia appear to have changed direction, according to analysts Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty spoke to.
"We saw those statements, we saw how no one mentioned the [railway station] shelter, that no one mentioned the people killed in Novi Sad, that it turned into a Chetnik orgy, a glorification of Kosovo. In fact, this is the repertoire that Vučić is already using," says columnist Dragan Bursac.
The rally at Slavija Square on June 28 began with a 16-minute silence in memory of the 16 people who died when a concrete shelter collapsed at the reconstructed Novi Sad railway station. The event sparked two-month student blockades of faculties and protests across Serbia.
Among the speeches that followed was an unidentified student, who told the crowd that "corruption is the essence of the entire regime in Serbia."
"It is a matter of days before the tragedy in Novi Sad is repeated elsewhere. The responsibility for these victims does not lie with nature or chance, but with the system that appointed suitable people, rather than professionals, at every level of government," she said.
Contrary to the organizers' insistence on anti-corruption protests, nationalist narratives dominated the speeches.
From the stage on Slavija Square, messages were heard, among others, from university professor Milo Lompar, known for his right-wing views, who said that in the Serbian Constitution "Kosovo and Metohija is an 'inalienable part' of Serbia", and also mentioned the protection of the sovereignty of Republika Srpska, the Serbian people in Montenegro and Serbian national rights in Croatia and North Macedonia.
Kosovo was included as part of Serbia in the preamble to the Constitution in 2006. Two years later, Kosovo declared independence, but Serbia still considers Kosovo to be an autonomous province of its own.
And, one of the student representatives in the blockade, who read the student movement's program, spoke about "respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, the Constitution, military neutrality and the protection of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and the region."
"This is not the right direction"
Pristina-based sociologist and political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri says he did not expect such a "turn" in the student protests, considering that they were considered "a bold, creative and promising approach by critical layers of Serbian society against the authoritarian leadership of Aleksandar Vučić."
"This is not the right direction, because the greatest service of student protests to the people would be to strengthen socio-cultural healing, confront the truth, interpret the past, and help enter a phase of political neorealism," he tells Radio Free Europe.
Muhaxhiri emphasizes that the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia have shown "the profound consequences of destructive pseudo-national policies" and that it is the moral obligation of the younger generations to make a "historical break with negative trends."
"The biggest test is Kosovo, because this topic is the thread that separates the normal from the abnormal, the visionary from the reactionary, and, most importantly, reality from illusions in Serbia. If students fail this exam, it will cause great long-term damage," he estimates.
However, he adds that this turn of events can also be understood as an attempt by students to gain the support of a part of the electorate that is "inclined to populist messages."
"So, a kind of middle ground between the two extremes: Vučić's manipulative tales and the brutal truth about Kosovo," he explains.
"The students made a mistake"
But ideology, in this case "the nationalist ideology of Aleksandar Vučić, cannot be defeated by nationalism," warns Professor Enver Kazaz from the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.
"The students made a mistake when they started grabbing symbolic capital from Mr. Vučić," he says.
Columnist Dragan Bursac also believes this is a wrong move.
"It is a catastrophic mistake to attack Vučić using Vučić's methods," says Buršac.
He adds that now progressive people are giving up and that everything has turned into a kind of "litia".
"People went to something that has nothing to do with protests, unless that's their goal, but if that's their goal, then they're doomed from the start," he underlines.
But, considering decades of nationalist politics, the development of the situation is not surprising, says Nihad Omerović, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a representative of the People's and Justice Party.
"Unfortunately, this has remained embedded in the consciousness of the younger generations. Now, for students, in a way that we saw in the last wave of protests, the Serbian government has gained a partner or rival in the race, in quotes, of who will be the greatest fighter for Serbism and certainly in the race, when it comes to foreign policy, for the fight for the rights of Serbs, regardless of where they live, and of course thinking about the territory of Kosovo and the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina," says Omerovic.
However, he says, given the student organization's initial liberal stances, he did not expect such a rightward turn.
"Unfortunately, we have a shift to the right and in some ways almost identical positions to the Government of Aleksandar Vučić and to the previous presidents of Serbia," he adds.
On the other hand, for some like Milan Petkovic, a representative in the Bosnian House of Representatives from the United Serb party, these were not student protests, but protests by the opposition.
"If there are student protests, they should be protests focused on student demands and not messages related to other topics. Obviously, we have a complete reversal of theses here and someone here has simply used these students to achieve some of their other personal interests," says Petkovic.
Nationalist impulses
The Vidovdan protest in Belgrade highlighted nationalist and chauvinistic impulses within the student movement, despite their previous progressive promises, according to a political analyst from Podgorica, Dusan Pajovic.
“When the protests began, the left and civil society in Montenegro gave them full support, believing that anarchist methods prevented a turn towards Greater Serbian Nazism. We believed that if the students were guided by democracy, they could not achieve Greater Serbian Nazism,” says Pajović.
However, as he says, the symbol of the bloody hand has been replaced by flags with the inscription "No surrender", and the story of the terrible crime at the railway station has been replaced by a narrative of Kosovo's betrayal.
"Now, according to the hegemonic matrix model, neither Bosnia and Herzegovina nor Montenegro are spared," he says.
According to him, it has become clear that, in addition to problems with Vučić's domestic policies, some students also have dissatisfaction with his foreign policies.
"But, not because of what we thought - direct interference and abuse of surrounding countries, but because, in their opinion, he is not doing enough."
"Apoliticism has shocked Vučić"
Two protests were held in central Belgrade on June 28, the national holiday of Vidovdan. One was organized by students who have been blocking universities across the country since November 2024 and are demanding early elections. The other was organized by citizens who say they support Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
According to a preliminary estimate by the Archive of Public Gatherings, 140,000 people gathered at the protest called by the students, while the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs says there were 36,000 people.
Tens of thousands of students and residents across Serbia have been protesting for seven months. Among their demands were the calling of early parliamentary elections and the removal of a camp from the city center set up by students opposing university blockades.
However, the students, as well as others who joined them, represented a heterogeneous group of people. As Professor Kazaz notes, there were people from the extreme right to the extreme left. In such a context, it is difficult to define ideology as a "cohesive factor."
"For a long time, students were apolitical, and with their apolitical nature, they managed to convince Vučić. Now that they have entered the ideological arena, things are very uncertain," says Kazaz.
"By fighting Vučić on his own territory, they are directly legitimizing nationalist ideology, and I think this is a big mistake and that it was necessary to overthrow Vučić with liberal and leftist ideology," Kazaz emphasizes.
Officially, the end of the Vidovdan student protest was announced on June 28 at around 9:45 PM.
"From this moment on, this is no longer a student protest. We remain here as citizens. This struggle is not just student-led. Today, we all demand elections. We will all rise up and we will all win," a recorded message broadcast over the loudspeaker said.
Clashes between some of the demonstrators and the police soon followed, and several people were arrested in the process. Barricades then began to be erected across Serbia as an "act of civil disobedience."
Road barricades are being erected spontaneously, organized by informal civic gatherings - at the behest of students.
The blockades demand that the Government announce early elections and release all protesters arrested in incidents following the massive student protest on June 28 in Belgrade./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
