Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has called on students housed in camps in central Belgrade to return to classes and go home on Saturday, March 15.
Vučić's request comes as Belgrade is expected to be the center of a massive rally on Saturday, organized by other students, who have been blocking state universities for months, demanding responsibility and accountability for the deaths of 15 people in the collapse of a shelter at the Novi Sad train station on November 1.
Vučić met with a group of students, who oppose the student blockades, at the Serbian Presidency building on Thursday.
They told the Serbian president that they would make a decision on his request to withdraw "within the next 24 hours."
"If you accept, thank you very much, you will make our job easier, if you do not accept, we will protect everyone," Vučić told them.
During the conversation, he once again accused the organizers of Saturday's rally of "wanting violence."
"We have come up with more difficult and worse plans that are not directed at you, but at the competent institutions," Vučić said, without explaining or providing evidence for these claims.
Vucic and other representatives of the Serbian Progressive Party-led government have previously warned of violence and unrest at the upcoming protest on March 15.
The mass rallies organized by students in blockades in several major cities in Serbia have so far been peaceful and no incidents have been recorded.
Vucic also said he would "do his best" to ensure that the situation with students seeking to return to classes "is resolved by April."
Members of the newly founded association "Students 2.0", who oppose the blockades of faculties, on the evening of March 6th set up tents in the park opposite the Presidency of Serbia and have warned that they will remain there until their demands are met.
They call themselves students "who want to learn" and, among other things, demand the extension of exam deadlines and the postponement of the start of the new school year, due to the blockage of faculties.
They also demand the dismissal of the Minister of Education, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, a moratorium on student loans, and a reduction in budget registration requirements.
The camp in front of the Presidency is a response to months of faculty blockades and student-led protests demanding political responsibility for the accident in Novi Sad.
The government claims to have met all the demands of the students in the blockade and demands an end to the protests.
On March 6, the Serbian Parliament approved amendments to the Law that provide for a 20 percent increase in budget allocations for higher education. This, according to government representatives, fulfills the last, fourth, demand of students.
A group of experts formed by the Senate of the University of Belgrade stated in a report on March 5th that the first three demands of the students have not been met.
The group stated that not all documentation for the reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad has been published and that not all persons who attacked students during the blockade have been identified, which are the demands of the academics in the blockade. /REL (A2 Televizion)
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MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
