There is no more fear. This sentence could be heard and seen in a number of local communities throughout Serbia in recent weeks. Only last week, according to the Archive of Public Meetings, 850 citizens gathered at the protest in Aleksandrovac (which would be 211.000 people in Belgrade). Then, 500 people in Raška (in Belgrade it would be 110.000). In Begeč 230, that represents 106.000 citizens in Belgrade.
The list is long. However, as the wave of protests spread, the question of where the opposition is and what it is doing arises more and more often. In this case, on the premises.
Dejan Bursać, political analyst for "Vreme" says that it is still questionable what can and how this entire protest movement will take shape because we do not know how this will spill over into some kind of institutionalized politics.
"What we see now in many places is freedom from fear, and the students are to blame for that." In many cities and municipalities, the opposition participates, especially in smaller places where there is no developed civil society, there are not so many students, so some opposition actors obviously took over the leadership of this protest movement, but I don't see anything illegitimate in that."
Bursać continues that the opposition should serve you, that is, political parties in general, should articulate social interests and values. "Of course, there are also some spills, as we saw in Kraljevo, Rača, Bogatić and the like. But that is the consequence, let's say, of the atmosphere that was created in the previous 13 years."
How significant are the actions of the opposition at the bar, Bursać says that they testify to a kind of liberation of people from that great fear they had before, so a kind of social solidarity is definitely there in the middle.
"And, on the other hand, it really shows how much accumulated pressure there is when you exclude the possibility for people to properly organize themselves in elections, to participate in fair and free elections, to be able to win in such elections somewhere, to address a problem through some kind of local media and the like, and you push all this under the carpet for years, normally you will have some kind of explosion at one point," explains the "Vremena" interlocutor.
Burać says that the power of the opposition is at the bar to encourage and show solidarity, but also that our system is very centralized.
"And yes, there can be changes from the premises." We are witnesses that even before October 5, we had 1997 when the opposition won in 30 cities and municipalities, and from there they built, let's say, a springboard for the year 2000. But, in our current situation, I think that it is terribly difficult and that there is a hypercentralization of politics and that the key change, after all, this key change, comes first of all from some level of students in big cities, in university centers", concludes Bursać.
Royally
For example, on Wednesday (February 19) in Kraljevo, the opposition blocked the work of the City Assembly. They demanded that Mayor Predrag Terzić leave the assembly hall so that the session could continue. And, if that doesn't happen, the citizens will gather in front of the Assembly building.
Namely, he published content openly insulting citizens on social networks from official accounts.
That rally passed without major incidents. And the mayor was "evacuated" from the Assembly by the police.
Predrag Vošitnić from the Local Front and councilor in the Kraljevo Municipal Assembly tells "Vreme" that it is quite important, now that social change has been initiated, and it was initiated by all people who are actually fed up with injustice and evil on all sides, that everyone accepts their role in that social change.
"We unjustifiably assign too many tasks and expectations to students, and in fact we just need to use the energy they carry, the purity and untainted integrity that they certainly carry, and then guided by that and that energy of social change, everyone takes a social role for themselves," points out Voštinić.
And he adds that they took that part of their own responsibility to the local Assembly in Kraljevo. "Everybody now encouraged by what the social change has brought to bear their share of courage and responsibility and to step forward and say, 'This bully in my building; This boss of mine is an uncouth bastard with a bought diploma; This man does this and that, and this institution should work like this and like this'."
When asked if the changes now start from the local level, he says that we cannot say that any change should now start from the local level, but from the individual levels.
"Political change and opposition action are actually necessarily connected when we realize that the opposition is actually a social consciousness that opposes these and such people in power." And that social awareness was also manifested through political entities such as parties and movements, and they do not necessarily represent the total action of the opposition," emphasizes Voštinić.
The interlocutor of "Vremen" concludes: "We can measure ourselves as to who successfully carried out some of their actions, but we must not doubt each other's intentions." That would be quite disastrous for what we call social change".
Aleksandrovan
One of the first non-university cities where students organized a large protest was Aleksandrovac. The message sent by students, not only from the parish, is clear - we want justice and freedom.
At the protests organized by students in Aleksandrovac (and not only in Zupa), political parties with their symbols are not welcome, but everyone as a citizen is. Therefore, representatives of the opposition in the parish could meet at protests.
While they declared their support for students back in December last year.
Dragiša Stamenković from the Parish Against Violence and councilor in the Aleksandrovac Municipality Assembly tells "Vreme" that they were thinking about what to do, and that all of what the students presented as their demands, they presented as part of their program of the coalition Serbia against Violence.
"What the Democratic Party has stood for since its foundation, which is the existence of the state, means the existence of institutions." In the election campaign, our promise was mainly that in the first year we would not be able to introduce absolutely anything, until we fix the institutions - municipal, that is, local institutions. So let's reduce budget expenditures, stabilize the municipal coffers, and only then can we think about some real development", explains Stamenković.
He adds that everything started to unravel like a ball, and that they were a bit taken aback - "we didn't know what to do, whether to be much more active or to leave it to the students, first of all, and listen to what they tell us".
However, the interlocutor of "Vremen" goes on to say that as far as the opposition is concerned, he thinks that it is time for them to slowly start to get their act together and to see what is the best way to act politically. "Well, in that sense, of course, while still absolutely supporting the students, our position is that we must not in any way, regardless of whether we have the right intentions, good intentions, we must not tarnish their work", concludes Stamenković.
On the other hand, Ivan Brborić from the Citizens' Group "Buđenje Župe" and councilor in the Aleksandrovac Municipality Assembly told "Vreme" that in Župa, in addition to the protests organized by students, every Saturday citizens of this municipality also come out at 18 p.m. for a protest in support of students, and that between 250 and 350 people gather at that protest.
"As far as activities in the Assembly are concerned, we had an Assembly recently, where we left it around 12:XNUMX in order to join our high school students because several high school classes were blocked. We will see further for assembly activities. "Honestly, we have not yet agreed on what our actions will be, whether we will even attend the next sessions of the Assembly", says Brborić.
And this group of citizens clearly supported the students and their demands back in December.
Gornji Milanovac
Gornji Milanovac is not a university town, but it also hosts protests. The Milan high school and some departments in the School of Economics are blocked.
"The first protest in Gornji Milanovac was about 30 days ago, where a really significant number of people, approximately 10 percent of the citizens, came out. Then the high school graduates started protesting, and in order not to interfere with us, we are glad that the youth finally came out in Milanovac, so they are currently organizing protests in Gornji Milanovac", Damir Agović from the citizens' group UZINAT and councilor in the Gornji Milanovac Municipal Assembly explains to Vreme.
He adds that he will see if the opposition will continue with the protests. He notes that since their organization is a member of the Free Organizations of Serbia (SOS), some synchronized action may take place on the territory of the whole of Serbia.
"We are all eagerly waiting for the session of the Gornji Milanovac Municipal Assembly, which was last held on December 27. The legal deadline for holding the next session is 90 days. That has not been done yet," Agović pointed out.
Certainly at that session, Agović states, the main topic will be, as far as they are concerned, the public declaration of the president of the municipality of Gornji Milanovac, considering that he acted identically to the mayor of Kraljevo, Predrag Terzić.
"He pointed the finger and targeted the graduates of the Milan high school, their teachers, professors and us parents." And the demand at the bar, in addition to those of students, demands of graduates, local demands, is that the president of the municipality apologizes to all of them and to us as parents", stresses Agović.
He concludes that what they are doing now is combing the public procurement portals, and seeing where some contracts have been executed that are harmful to the budget of the municipality of Gornji Milanovac.
