The face of evil in the eyes of the authorities

With arrival Serbian Progressive Party came to power in 2012, the first seeds of a construction project were planted that would become a hallmark of the progressive era in the coming years. O Belgrade on the water there were rumors as early as 2013 that the project would be presented to the public already in January of the following year.

In the same year, a working group was formed in charge of the expert control of the Draft Spatial Plan for the Belgrade on the Water project, and one of its members was appointed Vladan Djokic, urban planner and professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. As BIRN wrote, although Đokić participated in the drafting of the draft, "due to being unable to attend" he did not attend the session where it was decided that the plan could go into further procedure, which enabled the start of the construction of the neighborhood on the banks of the Sava.

Seven years later, Vladan Đokić became rector of Belgrade University. In April 2025, eleven years after the demolition of the first buildings on the banks of the Sava River, the first man of the largest university in Serbia was invited to an informative interview in the pre-investigation procedure for the criminal offense of abuse of official position. His departure to the police was preceded by a months-long campaign by government officials and media close to the regime, during which Vladan Đokić became state enemy number one.

What happened in those 11 years so that a professor, a respected member of the academic community, and finally the rector of the university - after all, a non-partisan person - went from being an unknown expert to the public and a member of the working group that drafted the plan for Belgrade on the water, to the front pages of the tabloids?

"EXTREMELY FAIR COOPERATION"

In the 2021 elections for the rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić defeated the previous rector, Ivanka Popović - by the way, the victim of a multi-year media hunt. It all started after Popović supported the students who blocked the Rectorate building in 2019 and demanded that it be determined whether the doctorate of minister Sinisa Malog, Vučić's closest associate, was plagiarized or not. In some later interviews, Popović said that "Siniša Malog's doctorate cost her re-election", but that she does not regret it.

Due to the specific situation in which Đokić took over the mandate from Ivanka Popović, at one time there was a suspicion that his coming to the post of rector could mark the influence of politics on the University of Belgrade, which would threaten its autonomy. In one of the confrontations with Đokić, the Speaker of the Parliament Ana Brnabić raised the issue of Đokić's arrival at the head of the University, saying that the government helped him to be elected, and that he was then "uncomfortably and inappropriately sycophantic towards President Aleksandar Vučić".

However, the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, Dejan Roglić, told "Vreme" that the cooperation with Rector Đokić "has been extremely fair from the very beginning."

"Voting at the Council was secret, so we cannot evaluate whose votes the rector was elected. Otherwise, the public was not sufficiently familiar with many things that the University has been dealing with since the beginning of Đokić's mandate, even though the actions have been conducted since 2022. The first action was related to the state graduation, where the rector respected the position of the majority of the deans. The next action was an action regarding the financing of the University, and the third was an action related to the platform of eight deans to solve problems in education. In all in three cases, the unity of the University was achieved", says Roglić.

On the other hand, as the interlocutor of "Vremena" explains, the authorities generally did not support the actions of the University. "Unfortunately, in that fight, the state's responses were inadequate, except when it comes to the first action, in connection with the state graduation, when the then Minister of Education Branko Ružić accepted the remarks of the University of Belgrade," Roglić points out.

UNIVERSITY DISOBEDIENCE

Before supporting the student demands, the first indication that the University of Belgrade could become a potential problem for the ruling party appeared in November 2024. Immediately before the student blockades, the Government of Serbia tried, under the radar, to pass amendments to the Law on Higher Education through the National Assembly. These changes would enable foreign universities, with state subsidies, to open their branches in Serbia - and without the previously implemented accreditation procedure, which is mandatory for Serbian state and private higher education institutions.

Instead of burying its head in the sand, the University of Belgrade then responded loudly. "I inform you that the entire academic community is deeply concerned, extremely upset and absolutely against such a proposal, both in terms of its essence and in terms of the way in which the initiative was non-transparently launched and implemented", Rector Vladan Đokić wrote on November 17 in an open letter to the members of the Parliamentary Committee for Education and Science.

Since there was no reaction from the state, the indignation of the University of Belgrade did not stop only at the rector's open letter and the statements of individual deans. Three days later, a warning followed - if the state does not accept the well-argued demands of the University of Belgrade, it is not excluded that the University will have to implement certain measures "which may also include a temporary suspension of work".

The announcement of the University of Belgrade was signed, once again, by Rector Vladan Đokić.

SMALL UNIVERSITY VICTORY

Why did the rector of the largest university in Serbia choose that very moment to publicly oppose the regime for the first time since the beginning of his first mandate in 2021? Was the danger of the consequences of the non-transparent bringing of foreign universities and their favoritism simply too great to keep such a thing quiet? Or did the Rector's College of the University of Belgrade sense a change in the air, judging that it can count on the support of the public if it comes out publicly? Or a bit of both?

Let's remember the moment when the University of Belgrade first threatened to suspend work. It was a particularly unfavorable moment for the regime. The protests of tens of thousands of people due to the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad flared up widely throughout Serbia, educators employed in primary and secondary schools were still on strike at the time, and the activists of the "The Bridge Remains" initiative, who camped day and night in front of the Old Sava Bridge and postponed its demolition, gave the progressives a headache.

The unfavorable situation for the regime coincided with the completely opposite situation for Rector Vladan Đokić, who a few months earlier secured a new three-year term at the head of the University of Belgrade, so he did not have to fear that someone would resent his decisions.

The authority of the Serbian Progressive Party and its former president and now informal leader, Aleksandar Vučić, began to be crowned. In such circumstances, the risk of the consequences of opening a new front towards universities and the academic community was too great.

That is why the government relented and, at least temporarily, gave up trying to push through controversial changes to the law. The state did not retreat quietly. Already on November 21, the President of Serbia threatened retaliation, calling, by the way, certain professors of the University of Belgrade crazy, thieves and plagiarists. Back then, there was a hint of a vindictive reckoning with the academic community, as the Serbian president mentioned the possible control of professors' money flows.

"Let's see how that money goes, since they lie that they have a salary as the President of the Republic, and they receive three, four times more money. Let's see, let's control how much money it is, since you are taking air from those children - for applying for exams, for everything alive, there is nothing you don't charge them there," Vučić said in a guest appearance on Radio-Television of Serbia.

He also announced that he would not end there, but that perhaps he, head and chin, would resubmit the withdrawn proposal to the Parliament.

photo: milena vlajic

INCREASING PRESSURE

Perhaps this small victory of the University would have been forgiven over time if the academic community had immediately returned to a state of slumber and closed its eyes to the happenings in society. But, alas! As soon as the government turned its tail, the first students closed themselves in their faculties. Like dominoes, one higher education institution in Serbia fell one by one, and by the New Year there was almost no state faculty that was not in some kind of blockade.

The University of Belgrade, instead of pretending to be crazy, blind and deaf - or even better, suppressing faculty blockades with repressive measures - openly sided with the rebellious students. If the government remained relatively silent on the previous statements of Rector Vladan Đokić regarding the amendments to the Law on Higher Education, public support for the student protests also marked the transition from the yellow to the red zone.

The warning lights finally came on in January 2025, when the rector gave a harsh response to the President of the Parliament and the SNS thorn in the side, Ana Brnabić, at a session of the Board of Education. Đokić then said that the University clearly gave support to the students, stating that it came from the extended collegium of the University, as well as from almost all scientific and teaching councils.

"This means that the University of Belgrade completely stood by the students. Don't question that it is a small group of professors, or a small consensus, but it is, I can't say one hundred percent, but a huge majority," said Đokić, adding that the students' demands were justified, and his speech was accompanied by applause.

THE HUNTING OF ĐOKIĆ

At that time, the rector received several headlines in the critical media, while the tabloids spent another ten days in silence. It is very easy to determine the exact beginning of the campaign against Vladan Đokić - until February 4, the rector of Belgrade University was relatively uninteresting to the editors of regime tabloids and television. Everything changed when the Rector's College of the University of Belgrade refused to negotiate with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, on student demands.

For the tabloids, the decision to reject Aleksandar Vučić's supposedly extended hand was the final straw. "Anarchists have taken over Belgrade University", wrote "Informer" at the time, with the assessment that the decision of Đokić and his vice-chancellor was "scandalous", but also "irresponsible" and "selfish". Seven days later, when the rector allegedly met with the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuel Giofre - in reality, the meeting took place two weeks before - there were headlines like: "Refused to talk with Vučić, so he goes to secret meetings! University of Belgrade Rector Vladan Djokić caught with Emanuel Giofre!" ("Informer"), or "What are they talking about? The rector of the University of Belgrade Vladan Đokić at a secret meeting with Giofre!" ("Hello").

In March, the rhetoric of regime officials and the media close to them was further tightened, and then the public heard for the first time from Minister Darko Glišić that the rector Đokić should be arrested - Glišić did not fail to call him "the face of evil". Ana Brnabić accused Đokić of violating the Constitution and laws for four months, for which, as she said, he cannot go unpunished. The highest state officials led the way, and the tabloids faithfully followed them - since the beginning of March, there was hardly a day that Vladan Đokić was not talked about in the circles of progressives, their "loyalists" and media henchmen.

LONG ANNOUNCED INVITATION

Finally, let's go back to the beginning of this text and the invitation to the rector for an informative interview. After several months of media lynching and marking the rector as an enemy of the state, a man who secretly instructs student protests and directly responsible for the "chaos" in the country, the call to the police did not seem like a bolt from the blue. Actually, the impression was that such a move has been waiting for some time. In addition, on April 17, just a few hours before the long-announced invitation to Đokić finally arrived, Darko Glišić again called for his arrest on Pink TV, this time labeling the rector as "the head of the criminal octopus".

The rector responded to the conversation a day later, and thousands of people gathered on that Good Friday in Zoran Đinđić Boulevard to support him.

"I made a statement and stated that I believe that I have not committed any criminal offense, not even the criminal offense of abuse of official position. That criminal offense is charged to all members of the academic community who try to articulate the decisions made by students, which were supported by professors and citizens. I do not know how the proceedings will proceed. This is a report against all deans, professors, students and the academic community. I hope that the academic community will remain united," said Đokić after leaving the UKP building two hours later.

Goran Roglić, dean of the University of Chemistry in Belgrade, believes that harmony in the academic community still exists.

"This was also shown by the number of people and members of the academic community who were in front of the UKP on Friday. The unity of the University definitely exists and I don't think it will be damaged despite all possible pressure from the authorities," concludes Roglić.

Despite the pressures, for years Rector Đokić was an example of a man who can hold a high public office without getting dirty. The moment he showed the first overt signs of disobedience, the regime began to put him through the tabloid human meat grinder. After all, the campaign against Đokić can hardly be viewed outside of a wider political context - it is another attempt to bring academic disobedience under control and return the University to the "natural" order of subservience.

And if you need an example of what a desirable rector looks like in Vučić's Serbia, just look towards Novi Sad. There, rector Dejan Madić has been trying to suppress the student rebellion for months.