Jovanović says that without cooperation with the opposition students they cannot win, but he also points out that "what is happening in the block of opposition parties convinces him more and more that it might be wise that the students did not try to negotiate anything with them".
"I was of the opinion for a long time that those talks should take place," he recalled. Jovanović adds that it is not too late for the talks to take place when the elections are announced and that from that moment "there must be cooperation in action in order to create a unified front that will create that famous referendum atmosphere".
We need to find a way so that no one is excluded, he says.
"We don't know much about the student movement. I think that movement has an internal problem of how to move from the previous organizational form to a new form that implies hierarchy. The moment of announcing the election requires that it all be turned into a classic election headquarters, with a clear distribution of work," he said.
Frequent announcements by the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and other representatives of the government about when the elections will be called, Jovanović calls "mortification".
"We are being tortured by Aleksandar Vučić, whose government, I am convinced, is deeply illegitimate. Everything that is happening within that 'rebellious society' is largely shaped by that torture, by the fact that we do not even know which elections will be held first, nor when those elections will be held," he stated.
According to him, instead of forecasts, those who are against the government should do everything in their power to prepare for the elections.
"The ideal look of Vučić's choices is that scene in which he hits a banana on a 10-year-old child on the basketball court. In that game, we try to somehow grow at least into a teenager who can match him."
He points out that the majority of the electorate is not on the side of Aleksandar Vučić and that he can win the elections "only and exclusively if we make a serious mistake". Jovanović claims that the problem is that there are no credible surveys that would show the trends in the electorate.
"None of the research ever includes Republika Srpska, where about 100.000 people can vote. That's a huge number, and it doesn't even include the diaspora. There are a lot of unknowns, and based on that information, someone should say, for example: 'I'm moving around the census and it's risky to go to the polls, let's support the strongest list.'"
How many columns?
The interlocutor of "Kwake 23" says that he is not a supporter of the idea that students and the opposition must go to the elections in one column.
"A lot depends on what that famous student list will look like and whether it goes for some sort of broad sweep, a catch-all list that would try to reconcile both the national and the civil," he added. When asked about the political profiling of the student movement, Jovanović answers that he does not consider that taking a conservative-right position is a mistake.
"It is politics that wins elections here. Peter Magyar is the same kind of player. If we look at the strategy of his appearance, the fact is that all the left-wing parties gave up on the exit and said: 'We will vote for the values that are dominant in Hungary because our goal is to remove Orban.'"
The professor of the Faculty of Law points out that the Hungarian example is a good indicator of what needs to be done in Serbia after the elections.
"The Hungarian consolidates constitutional democracy, basic justice, criminal responsibility, investigation of the origin of property. These are the things that are primarily expected here." In order to achieve this goal in Serbia as well, Miodrag Jovanović says that we need to play the card that is clearly dominant in Serbia. "It's the principle of the 'lesser evil'. It means that I completely put aside what I think and what my values are. That's how, after all, Đinđić realized that Kostunica could replace Milošević," explained Jovanović.
Not enough
He warns that the change of government is the first necessary but not sufficient step.
"Certainly there are people who expect criminal liability. I am convinced that the majority of citizens expect from the post-Vučić government an unscrupulous fight to determine the criminal liability of all those who are the head of that regime."
However, Jovanović adds, there are many people in Serbia like the one who threw manure in front of the door of Milovan Milivojević, the father of Milomir, the deceased worker of the "Milan Blagojević - Namenska" factory. "He did not commit any crime. He did an act that deserves moral contempt and abhorrence. Tomorrow, of course, we will find out who that man is, we will find out everything. The real question is what to do with these people. They will stay living here. That is a difficult question."
Jovanović says that the most responsible people at the top of the state must "responsible for what they did, and that the others, in a metaphorical sense, wear that T-shirt 'Forgive me for my ugly past', that we remember where they were, what they did, that we don't allow such people to ascend to decisive positions tomorrow without problems".
He recalled that after the "ProGlas" forum in Frankfurt, Vučić wrote on social networks that he only saw anger and hatred and the absence of any program at that gathering. "The thing is that there is actually a little anger and hatred, considering what Vučić does and how he treats his dissenters. What he gets is minimal compared to what his actions should generate," Jovanović claims. He pointed to several examples, such as singer Bojana Stamenov's concert in Leskovac, which was going to ProGlas rallies, being cancelled.
"A man in Frankfurt told us that in 2023 he organized a 'Diaspora Against Violence' gathering and that every time since then he has been harassed at the border crossing, that the BIA has taken him aside." According to Jovanović, a systematic reckoning with all the people who think that Aleksandar Vučić should step down from power after 14 years is underway.
"And then he talks about some anger and hatred. There is little anger and hatred, considering what this government has done to this people," concluded Miodrag Jovanović, professor of the Faculty of Law and member of "ProGlas" in an interview for FoNet.
Source: Phonet
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
