There is something unseen in the scene people who wait in line for several hours to give a signature. At first glance, that signature will not decide elections, will not automatically become a vote and does not guarantee that the person who cast it on October 25 will round up the same list. But it only looks that way at first glance, because whoever is ready to stand in line for 3, 5, even 7 hours to sign the candidacy, is ready for 40 days of angry campaigning.
During the weekend in Serbia, a large number of citizens came to points to collect signatures for "Student list - Students win", and the students submitted more than 70.000 signatures to the Republican Election Commission on Monday, September 14. At least 10.000 certified signatures are required for the parliamentary list. The students, therefore, collected much more than the legal minimum. This means that a large number of people were ready to do something during two days that requires time, organization and personal appearance. It means that the student movement, which has been showing its political strength for almost two years on the street, in colleges and in assemblies, now has the capacity to take people to the points for signing the electoral list. That is a political fact.
Citizens' group "Student List - Students Win" was formally founded on September 9. Two days later, the collection of signatures began, and points were opened in Belgrade and other cities. In some places, long queues were formed, and students extended working hours so that people who were waiting could have their turn. Such images have one feature that electoral mathematics cannot register. They show political mobilization in real time.
The decision of the student movement to translate its enormous social energy into electoral politics is currently the most important political experiment in Serbia, if not beyond. His first result is no parliamentary seats won yet. The first result is precisely the possibility to appear in the elections.
WE FINALLY KNOW THE LIST
So far, the students have announced 250 candidates, which is the maximum that a parliamentary list can have. It is headed by Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist at the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases of Vojvodina and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Novi Sad. The list includes people from various professions including doctors, professors, scientists, artists, economists and farmers. Among them are, among others, professor Dejan Šoškić, playwright Željko Hubač, farmer Zlatko Kokanović, actors Tihomir Stanić and Bojan Dimitrijević. And there is a man to whom the whole country sang a song: "We have our god, his name is Bodiroga!".
That composition is important because it speaks to one of the dilemmas facing the student movement. It originated as a student movement, but now seeks a mandate to represent a much wider part of society. And that they can do it, they showed through the "Student in every village" action, where they talked to people who did not stand at the blockades, did not go to protests and did not participate in the assemblies. It is a much more difficult job than organizing a protest and the students have successfully done it. Just as they successfully did their homework and registered the association "Student List" in the Agency for Business Registers on August 3, which should give the group of citizens the authorization to participate in the elections. All the more ridiculous are the regime's attempts to register at least three associations with a similar name last week.
And how is that list faring in public now? Well, let's say that this text was created less than 12 hours after it was officially published and that even the proverbially cynical Twitter likes it, ie. to users of the social network X. Moreover, people pretend to be important and announce who on the list they know personally. And something even more important is happening: candidates for deputies are thanked more than congratulated. It says a lot about the atmosphere in which these elections are being held, it is gratitude for the sacrifice, because everyone knows that there will be a gruesome five-six weeks in which the regime will spare no effort to beat and hit these people wherever and however they can.
SELF-GROWING, PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT
The student movement did not come about because someone decided one morning to found another political organization. It arose from a two-year rebellion against the way institutions function and from the need to return responsibility for public life to citizens. His entry into the elections therefore represents an attempt to check what happened outside the institutions within them.
On Monday, students with boxes with signatures left the Rectorate of the University of Belgrade towards RIK. Citizens waited for them in front of the Commission, and after handing in the list and signatures, the students played the Užice round accompanied by trumpeters. In the handover procedure itself, an administrative complication arose because one document was missing, which was subsequently submitted. It is perhaps a good reminder of what awaits the student list now. It is no longer just a movement that can function outside of institutions. From the moment she submitted her candidacy, she will have to function within their rules as well.
For that, she will need the same quality that brought her to this point: the ability to mobilize people. This is no small matter, especially in a country where for years there was a belief that elections were predetermined, that nothing could be changed and that the citizen was left only to choose between bad options.
The steps of the regime, now that it is most vulnerable, can no longer be predicted and God only knows what they are planning. For now, we know something else. People came. And they don't plan to leave until they finish the job.
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