Three half-burnt candles, the ones for the cemetery, one egg box, several red fists drawn on paper and banners in front of the entrance to the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party in Smederevska Palanka.
Thus ended the Sabbath. protest support to students in this place, about eighty kilometers south of Belgrade.
This was the second gathering, but unlike the previous one, the residents of Smederevska Palanka, in addition to the students, also supported the employees of the "Božidar Trudić" Music School.
The lower music school in that city is the only one in Smederevska Palanka and the surrounding area where most of the teachers have not held classes for the past week - 29 out of 38 employees have decided to join other educators who are not holding classes, as well as the demands of students who are all over Serbia in blockade for more than two months.
"We join the students in their demands and we think that these are common values that we share," one of the music teachers at this school, who wished to remain anonymous, told "Vreme".
There is no faculty in Smederevska Palanka, and classes are regularly held in all three high schools and four elementary schools, as well as in their village departments.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićPalanka is with the students.
Applause for the music
Twenty-nine music teachers adamantly don't teach these days. They were threatened with dismissal, the arrival of an inspection, but none of that is a reason to make a different decision and return to the classrooms.
"There were threats of layoffs, then dialogue was mentioned, then reduced wages, then that the school year will be extended because of our strike, but it won't be because of the shortened first semester." We said in our statement that this is one of our reasons for the rebellion. If the ministry can shorten the semester as it suits them, and then we have to manage, conclude grades, organize exams, then we can also suspend classes, as a sign of fighting for something we believe in," says the teacher at the "Božidar Trudić" school. .
They suspended classes on January 20, when the second semester began. On a daily basis, they decide how to work the next day.
The principal supports them in this, but the nine teachers in the school hold classes regularly. That, those on strike say, does not create a rift among the teaching staff, and those on strike are united and, as they say, have each other's backs.
"As everything started, colleagues are joining us, in small or large steps. Some other schools have announced various forms of protest, so we expect that more colleagues will be encouraged by our struggle," says one of the teachers who is not teaching classes these days.
However, there is also fear among those who are not working these days.
"There is always fear on both sides. We think it's time to persevere through the strike."
They are supported by the students' parents and other fellow citizens.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićSupport for music school teachers
On Saturday (January 26), they received a special round of applause, in front of the school building, when several hundred fellow citizens greeted them during the protest held in this place.
"We are used to applause, but they always mean something to us and it's a nice feeling, especially so many people who probably have nothing to do with the music school, but felt the need to support us and all those people who came here in front of the school."
Together they sang the national anthem of Serbia.
On the occasion of the strike in this school, the president of the municipality, Nikola Vučen, spoke earlier.
Announcing that in the territory of the municipality, all primary and secondary schools resumed classes at the beginning of the second semester, he said that the collective of the music school "Božidar Trudić" decided by majority vote to suspend classes and added that the majority of employees in that school are not from the territory of the municipality.
It is true that most of the employees of this school come from other places.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićTransparent
Palanka (did) not get up
The streets in Smederevska Palanka are usually full of passers-by on Saturdays. The cafes along the pedestrian zone are also full. Saturday is also the market day in this place, but this Saturday was also a day of protest in the city.
Several hundred locals gathered in the city square near the fountain in support of the students who have been protesting for more than two months demanding responsibility for the victims of the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad.
In the call to the protest, it was written that it was also dedicated to supporting music school teachers.
Carrying the banners "You are not in charge" and "I want a life, a better life", red gloves and whistles, the gathered headed along the road a few hundred meters further to the intersection of Vuk Karadzic Street and Heroes' Square.
They stopped there, stopping the traffic for 15 minutes in silence, paying tribute to the victims of the demolition of the canopy in Novi Sad.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićThere were also those who studied in SFRY
Zoran Maričić is among those gathered because, as he says, he is fed up with living "in a time where there is no system, where one man rules, one man decides, where the people have no voice, where people die because of gossip."
The city where he lives has not risen in the majority, and he says that this is because many depend on the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and are afraid of not being seen at the rally.
"I get private messages from people who tell me that they are not allowed to go to the protests because of their children." It motivates me even more to be here and to hope that maybe in the elections, where no one is watching, they will vote differently," Maričić told Vreme.
A few moments later, silence is announced from the megaphone. Several hundred people - from students to pensioners - are standing in silence.
This is the second gathering organized in this place, and at the previous one, according to eyewitnesses, there were fewer people.
"People here are quite scared, because we are a small community, but it seems that they are slowly waking up." I am glad that people are sticking together more and more and that we are in solidarity and that they understand that only through unity we can reach the goal, which is a just and free country," Vuk Đorđević, one of the organizers of the protest, told Vreme.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićThe only teacher in a Palanac school who is on strike
The only one in the line
Among the banners, the one with notes and symbolic support for music teachers stands out. It is worn by Dušan Grašić, a teacher at the Elementary School "Olga Milošević" in Smederevska Palanka.
He is the only one who does not teach at that school. "I think I'm the only educator in Palanka who doesn't teach, along with the music school teachers," Grašić told Vreme.
There is no support at the school where he works, but he is provided by the teachers of the music school, he says.
He is afraid, he adds, but not of dismissal, but of expressing his own opinion.
"I'm afraid to publicly state everything that bothers me, because I don't want my children to be at such gatherings in a few years. That's the least of the fears, actually. The fear is much greater that he will be somewhere outside the country."
Commenting on the minister's threat of layoffs, he says: "Everything according to the law, there would not be this blood if everything was according to the law."
Weather/Katarina StevanovićThe meeting in Smedrevska Palanka was attended by several hundred people
There is another teacher at the meeting, but he is not on strike, unwillingly.
"The vast majority of teachers at my school are in favor of protests, but I think that a lot of them are afraid of losing their jobs and that people are indecisive at the right moment when they should show it," Željko Đokić told "Vreme".
In the school where he works, classes are held regularly.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićThose gathered also wore red gloves
If you're fine, then nothing.
Palanka used to be among the few municipalities where the Democratic Party was in power, although at the republican level the schedule was different.
The president of the municipality was then Radoslav Milojičić Kena, now a member of parliament of the Serbian Progressive Party.
At that time, Kena boasted that his municipality was ruled by the opposition.
Later, the political situation changed. In Smederevska Palanka, the SNS came to power, and later Ken was also transferred to that party.
Palanka used to be a famous industrial center. Most of the locals worked in the "Goša" factory, which has since collapsed, and if you ask the people of Palančan, most of them fondly remember that time when life was good.
Today, gathered at the meeting, they say that this place is a "disaster".
Bad life and the state of the country brought them to the street, say the interlocutors of "Vremena".
"I am here because we are not doing well in this country, corruption has crossed all the limits of normality, if there can be any normality in corruption at all," Nikola Paunović, one of the gathered, told Vreme.
He explains that it is difficult in Palanka. "For everything, you have to know someone who, of course, by some miracle is in SNS. "We are all in some kind of problems," says Paunović.
He did not work on Friday (January 24), when Serbia was under the so-called general strike. The bar where he works is one of the few that did not open that day.
Weather/Katarina StevanovićThe protest ended in front of the premises of SNS
Having passed by the music school where the teachers of that school left the group and returned to the assembly hall, the gathered continued to the nearby SNS premises.
Exactly at that place, in the main street of the city, Saturday's protest officially ended, with shouts of displeasure to the president of the country and plastering of the front door with banners.
From there, most of the gathered went along the city promenade to the fountain, the place where the meeting started.
