Divisions in Serbia between "us and them", "fake elite or toothless", "Zvezda or Partizan", "Europe or Russia" flared up again as student protests gained momentum. By radicalizing the government's response, society becomes even more polarized according to a new criterion - "boys or students"
If you opened the social media page "students in blockade" last weekend to see when you should go to Autokomanda, or you clicked on "vucicuverujem" on Instagram to listen to the speeches from the SNS counter-rally in Jagodina - then you are also in Ćaci clearly divided.
Expression parents it is the work of an unknown author who wrote the sign "boys go to school" in red at the entrance to the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Gymnasium in Novi Sad and thus tried to persuade the students to sit in the benches, even though many schools went on strike from January 20 and thus provided support student boycott.
Many believe that the now popular Ćaci is actually a SNS member who somewhat forgot the Cyrillic alphabet, so his Cyrillic is Đ (Ђ) turned out – Ć (Ћ).
Thus, the already known divisions in Serbia into "us and them", "fake elite or toothless", "Zvezda or Partizan", "Europe or Russia", which sociologist Slobodan Cvejić mentioned for "Vreme", added "or are you guys or pupils".
SStudenne I know where the problem is. PUPILS really need to go back to school, and PUPILS can go to the streets.
facts I mean good graffiti pic.twitter.com/0So2H3Zu5r
— Danijel Milošević (@suri_orao) January 22, 2025
When most of them were students of schools they don't know where they are, then they write graffiti like this.
Image and occasion and the essential difference between the students who are on the street, and the students who sit in "institutions" and run the country https://t.co/Tp8CTEvaz3— Vladimir Medjak/Vladimir Medjak (@VMedjak) January 22, 2025
Students go to school to become literate, students go on strike! pic.twitter.com/ycrfqbAWTr
— IzVesna (@izvesnavesna) January 22, 2025
"You either are or you are not" is becoming more and more noticeable in non-networks, and some people only put "either or".
Either you are, or you are not... STUDENTS, EDUCATION, LAWYERS, FARMERS... YOU? pic.twitter.com/MTtknP8tzJ
— Igor Avzhner GENERAL STRIKE (@igorfocus) January 20, 2025
Is the number of undecideds decreasing?
Slobodan Cvejić, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, explains such phenomena in Serbia as a situation in a "very polarized society".
"Also (in Serbia) there are large social and identity differences due to the uneven course of modernization throughout the previous two centuries, since Serbia has been searching for its place among the European nations," he adds.
In regular situations, says Cvejić, the number of undecideds is greater than the number of determined ones (either for or against).
"But the main feature of this protest, caused by the accident in Novi Sad, where it was quite obvious that corruption and carelessness are taking people's lives, is that the number of motivated people is far greater, namely those who are against this regime," says Cvejić.
One story: Students and students at the table
David has a friend from his former job, whom he has been friends with for 15 years, and they have a habit of going out for a beer once a week. At the table in the tavern, David stated for "Vreme", that "the protests are going in the right direction, that at least some steps have been taken towards changes, to potential resignations".
"There, that friend of mine, whom we could never place exactly somewhere, but has commented on all sorts of things before, laughed and said 'you blame Vučić a lot for everything, the country is going through the best period in the history of Serbia'. I then ask him what's so good about it, he says 'there are roads, it's being built, Belgrade has never looked better, there's never been more money, we're becoming important in the world,'" adds David.
Then there was talk about the teacher's strike, and David's friend's sister is an educator, for her, he says, he commented "who is to blame, that profession is not profitable".
"When he also said that 'corruption exists everywhere in the world and roofs are falling all over the world', but also that 'it would be easiest for you to kill him', exactly those sentences that we hear all the time in the tabloids, that's when I went crazy and started to I'm wandering around the bar," says David, who can't explain why all these comments annoy him so much right now and how he managed to sit with the same friend once a week for the past 13 years, when SNS was in power.
"Now, after all, human lives are at stake, and he is repeating to me the identical statement he read somewhere."
Divisions were deliberately maintained and developed, Cvejić thinks, under "neo-radical rule".
"In such a context, it is logical that, when the social situation worsens, the division into - for and against - becomes stronger," adds the professor, who is also a Member of Parliament on the list of Zdravko Ponoš.
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