Pioneer Park on Friday March 7th in the morning is full of some new pioneers - counter-blockade.
They brush their teeth, eat sandwiches, stretch and still wake up in the tents where they spent the night. The sun hasn't even burned yet, and the night was cold, so they are still warming themselves with heaters.
Their tents are almost identical, as if they bought them in the same place, and they all have exactly the same gas heaters.
While having breakfast or doing their morning hygiene, every tenth or even twentieth agree to be photographed.
"Don't have me, please." Wait for me to turn around, to put on my hood," shouts the girl, while her colleague immediately runs out of sight.
But one of them is definitely available to talk. That's it Milos Pavlovic, a medical student who is also the leader of this "group".
"If someone is ashamed of being here, what should I do to them", he says to the girl who complains to him and leaves, when he sees the journalists approaching him.
Photo: TimeMorning sedwich, but no photography
"We are learning all the time"
Pavlović says that "he has not heard of the weekly 'Vreme', but that he wants to make a statement to everyone." Asks:
"Are you like Nova S and N1 or something?"
The "Novosti" journalist, who himself is waiting for a statement, tells him "they are similar to you, but not exactly the same", but Pavlović certainly gives a statement and says with a smile "that it is no problem, he wants to talk".
Counter-students as a diagnosis
"For a long time, there has been such a situation in society that people simply mustered the courage to come together. "A couple of us came out publicly and spoke earlier, but now others have taken courage," he says for "Vreme".
"That's how we got together spontaneously. Who we are - we are the 'We want to learn' party. We have books in these tents, we study all the time. This is our first and most important request, out of a total of five. I would like those requests to be fulfilled immediately, so that we can return to normal as soon as possible."
Close encounters
Other demands refer to the moratorium on student loans, reducing the conditions for enrollment in the budget, increasing the number of exam deadlines, moving the start of the new school year, increasing the amount of student scholarships and loans.
He adds that many people contacted them to support them, that they were dragged out because they brought them a bench, but that they were allegedly also visited by students in the blockade.
"They provoked us, said that we are loyalists and Sedvicians," he says.
When asked where his tent is, he says that it is "all the way over there" and adds with a laugh that he "even in Belgrade always lives on the outskirts, never in the center". He also throws in a request to look nice in the photo.
Photo: TimeMilos Pavlović also spoke for Vreme, although he says he does not know which media it is
He then goes to the central tent to take a photo with grandmother Dana, who came to "celebrate her birthday with the youth and tell Miloš how they attacked her violently because she was the only one who defended him when he spoke on television." They hug warmly, and Dana's grandmother exclaims "for Serbia".
Photo: TimePavlović and Grandma Dana
How did you find out about the meeting? So…
Those gathered en masse refuse to make statements, turn their heads.
Luka Lalosević is a student from Ruma at the Faculty of Political Sciences who, besides Miloš, is the only one who gives statements to all journalists.
When asked how they organized themselves, he told "Vreme" that "they invited students this way and that way and that everyone brought their own tents and heaters." It seems they all had the exact same heaters at home.
"There are 180 tents here, and about 500 people are there in them." We will not leave here until our demands are met," he told Vreme.
A group of guys around one of those same heaters figure out how to make stew in the afternoon on it.
"Well...", this answer to the question of where they heard about the counter-blockade takes a long time, but a girl intervenes as a rescue, saying that they heard "from word of mouth, one told another, then another told another".
At that moment, a woman walks through the park with a whistle, and the crowd throws insults and very sexist comments at her, puts her in a relationship with Djilas and calls her grandma. However, some of them remembered that the journalists were also there and shouted "hello, that's enough".
Photo: TimeEveryone is playing with the same heaters
"Pioneers, but disasters"
A piano teacher from a music school in Belgrade came to visit the students in the park.
She said she went to walk the dog, the day after she received only 11.000 dinars in salary, because she has been on strike at school for seven weeks. She came to ask the gathered a few things, and most of all - "who gathered them together and what are they students of".
A young girl comes up to her and shows her the index, says she is a student.
"Here, look, we are not inserted elements, I have proof," she says and shows the index.
In the index it says Faculty of Law, but the piano teacher answers her:
"I see that you were born in 2001, you are 24 years old, so you have been studying for a long time, and you don't even let it be seen whether you have a certified semester."
The girl leaves, and the professor tells "Vreme" that "Pioneer Park brought out pioneers today, but disasters."
"They all have the same tents, they have properly installed toilets and everything, this is really a living horror and a mockery of us who are really sacrificing ourselves." Next week will be our eighth strike," says the professor.
Photo: TimeThe piano teacher and the law student are looking at the evidence - the index
