A little more than two months from the two-year anniversary Novi Sad tragedy the student movement faced a great challenge.
Long sought after and awaited snap elections maybe they will happen even before November 1st, and until now it is not completely clear who and in what way would represent the movement that has changed Serbia in many ways in the past year and a half.
Some measurements that have been made public in recent months may have relaxed those who believe that Vučić's regime has come to an end because supposedly students have an advantage. U research published by CRTA This advantage is significant.
Everyone who deals with political campaigns knows that the results of "measurements" can also deceive a certain electorate: if your voters hear that you are surely winning, they may not go out to vote on election day, because they believe that the victory has already been won.
At the same time, the public is convinced that students - who go to classes, prepare and take exams - are simultaneously running their "Student in every village" campaign and that no one in particular has to get involved because "children keep everything under control".
Photo: Ognjen Stevanović/FoNetStudents also softened some hard radical hearts
Student "Bolsheviks" and election vaudeville
Unfortunately, some information indicates that this is not quite the case.
Every day, the regime's tabloids and television tabloid stations fill their programs with readings of the document or playing audio conversations from student plenums where certain "candidates" are "vetted" and use this to create a narrative that there is a group of "Bolsheviks" against Vučić who don't even know what to do and how to do it.
In May of last year, the student movement demanded elections and from that moment the rules of the game changed, because the students entered the field of pure politics where different rules apply and where a different game is played, in a way that was unknown to them. Even when they started making the famous "student list", the thing turned into vaudeville and political reality shows on the sidelines, because the only thing we haven't seen so far is that on some TV or YouTube channel "goes" a cyron with the number to vote for one of the "candidates" for the student list.
The regime remained rather cold, it knew that without external pressure it does not have to go to early elections despite the crisis it has acknowledged and which it has spoken about through its many spokesmen in the suit of "analysts" and guests on morning programs and collegiums.
Hit the student list.
In recent days, the "discussion about candidates for the student paper" gained momentum. The note she sent Bojana Maljevic to the University of Niš, that is, to the students of that institution who proposed her as a candidate for a place on the list, was published in the tabloids in a way that was supposed to show that the student movement had broken down.
Photo: Zoran Mrđa/FoNetBojana Maljević withdrew her candidacy for the student list
In the following days and weeks, it has been going on for a whole month, almost every day some kind of documents surface that reach the Informer and are read there as proof that the student movement does not know what to do because it is all entangled in stories about the way to "check candidates", and all because of different currents within the student movement, among which there are allegedly disagreements and decisions cannot be made.
It goes without saying that what Informer is doing has the sole purpose of keeping Vučić's voter base close to the leader and that no one there thinks that there is something better than him.
Another goal is to cause confusion because most people do not understand that "all that" is just propaganda and what the Informer publishes produces the desired consequences.
Udba methods
When that is put aside, problems emerge that are real and need to be talked about.
Why did students start making a list in the first place, when there was no choice in sight? Why did they allow that procedure to take a year of action, and there are no results? Why do they apply "vetting" methods that are more suitable for police and udbash than civil action? In the end, can they appear in those future elections as an organized group that has some visible structure - election headquarters, controllers, representatives in electoral commissions...?
While "Students are winning" reverberates in Serbia, the question arises whether there will be enough people who will be engaged to bring that slogan to every house in Serbia and whether the students with their policy of "exclusivity and fencing" drove away those who would help or those who would help in the campaign do not even know that it is necessary?
And is it possible for other "non-students" to join the students without them also being "vetted", that is, they too cannot pass the complicated "security assessment" which, again, is more appropriate for Udba than for political actors?
Beware of flyovers and the search for morally superior persons
It's easy to understand the students' caution - 35 years of multi-partyism tells us that people are corruptible and can easily fly overboard. However, when you take a closer look at this phenomenon, they fly away when they see that their side has absolutely no chance.
But now things have turned around. The student movement has at least the same number of voters as Vučić's list, and probably by some percentage stronger. Therefore, those who should be the political embodiment of the movement are not on the weaker side, on the contrary.
Due to such a political culture or political pragmatism of the Machiavellian type, the student movement has few people to trust. But on the other hand, it is logical to ask: children, why are you so worried? Didn't the actions you carried out show that even some hard radical hearts melted in front of you? We've all seen those scenes.
Why don't you trust anyone and look for absolute benchmarks and indicators, make check matrices that should give you 250 morally superior people?
Photo: Ognjen Stevanović/FoNetStudent campaign
Student "shadow government"
That's how it looks, viewed from the side, and it's the wrong way and path, it can be seen now, because all the energy was focused not on the people who need to hear that there is a need for change and how to achieve that change, but on the analysis of images, texts and screenshots from mobile phones.
It also seems that this method did not attract a large number of students. On the contrary, that method and in general the fruitless "work on the student list" reduced the participation of students in the movement and turned their work into tabloid ammunition against them and all those who are in favor of regime change in Serbia.
The students defended their moral position with the attitude that they themselves will not be people's deputies or members of a future government, but such a superior attitude drove them to the other extreme: they are now shown as a kind of shadow government, as a kind of future governing board of Serbia that will appoint people to lower management levels and evaluate their work.
Despite all that, the people somehow made up their minds, so in recent months we have seen a strong campaign by the regime with the aim of establishing its electorate, to secure its 1,8 to two million voters.
Photo: Marko Dragoslavić/FoNetThe student struggle has been going on for more than a year and a half
Hope instead of paranoia
When tomorrow, at some point, elections are called, it will be necessary to do a number of things technically, and for that an organization is needed that is focused on that action, and not on checking every person who appears near the movement.
In order for the campaign to be carried out properly, thousands of people are needed who will cross Serbia several times in 45 days, and the students cannot do this alone, and for that they need the help of citizens and organizations, probably also the parties that will support the "Student List".
That organization, as time goes on, will have to be more organized and visible, because it is difficult to maintain the flame of a movement among one social group for more than two years.
The change that is felt in Serbia and that is slowly making its way through all social layers does not mean much without political change, and there is no political change without a solid and organized movement that is able to articulate the needs of the citizens and turn it into an electoral victory. That victory, written in the slogan "Students win", requires another addition - get involved, activate, join and that call should come from the student ranks.
If the student movement gets bogged down in "security assessments", there will not be much time left for a real campaign in which it is necessary to show that there are people in Serbia capable of getting it out of what is described as a "hijacked state". It is a bigger challenge for students than the names of certain people who will be on the list - how to get more than two million people who are clearly against this regime to the polls.
It will probably be easier if the paranoia is replaced by what graced the student movement in the beginning - a sense of hope that exists and is real.
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