The regime of Aleksandar Vučić is facing the longest protests against the government in the modern history of Serbia.
Why the government refuses to appeal to the rule of law and thus abolish itself is clear. But the really interesting question is what motivates citizens to put pressure on the government for eight and a half months, without respite? And where does it lead?
The new issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday (July 17), is dedicated to that topic.
Philosopher Lazar Atanasković believes that at the root of permanent rebellion is the realization that everyone in society is otherwise at the mercy of those who have power.
"That terrible and very personal realization for everyone makes resistance the only refuge. In other words, people cannot stop and return to some kind of 'normality', because if they try to do that, all that remains for them is ruin," he told Vreme.
Stew instead of assault
Older participants of the protest often criticized the supposed "missed opportunities", both on March 15 and on Vidovdan. But such a slower and more thorough way of fighting was chosen by the students.
"For us elders, stewing is an unnatural way of fighting, we have been used to the fact that a battle will follow since March 9, it's just a question of when we will gather in sufficient numbers," Sava Tatić, an economist and journalist, tells us.
"And what the students chose, as the leading force, is probably more effective in the long run and more beneficial for society. However, the tipping point must be reached, unless it has already happened, because Vučić and his team are acting like political zombies."
SNS would lose the elections.
The views of Dušan Vučićević, FPN professor and public opinion researcher, go in this direction. "If the elections were called for the fall, we could expect the disempowerment of the SNS and the cohabitation of a new government and the President of the Republic," he says in an interview for "Vreme".
The student list would have enormous support. But, here too, a long breath is needed to maintain the fire of protest.
Because the government will certainly not call early elections, says Vučićević. Students, on the other hand, will continue to "hide their cards" and will not announce the names that would be on their election list. The only thing that we can sense, says our interlocutor, is that there will be no opposition there.
All in all, these are not bad prospects in the midst of a marathon protest that does not stop. Vučić and his regime failed to level the social space, to make it homogenous. Moreover, from now on they are outsiders.
Read the entire articles and interviews on this topic in the new issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday (July 17). Or you subscribe to the print or digital edition
