After many years, the citizens of Serbia have finally realized - and they owe this social and political maturation to the students - that the savior will not come. A new face from the world of politics and exactly the way we imagined him, not even a famous athlete who has just hung up his racquet will create a better society and responsible citizens overnight or lead us out of the spiral of injustice and violence. If we don't do something, things won't change on their own. And that is precisely why, after the Vidovdan protest, the usual laments from some earlier times were not heard - why no famous person came, where is the head of the Church or where are the representatives of this and that institution to support the people. Simply, it no longer matters who is not there - in the end, everyone bears their own moral and other responsibility for (in)action - but who is present.
And in the middle of summer, at temperatures of over 30 degrees, after months of protests in which the government threatened, intimidated, arrested, beat and announced violence - because past experience shows that when the regime warns, it actually threatens - at least 140000 people gathered on the streets of the capital. And then there were blockades and a creative rebellion, which, by all accounts, is just heating up. On the other hand, the pressure and violence of the authorities is heating up. What next?
LIVE FREELY IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY
Psychologist Ana Mirković believes that with this protest, the rebellious society showed great determination, willingness to fight until the goal is fulfilled - "which is not symptomatic for us because we were able to give up before and when we were close to being resolved" - and, as in previous months, great solidarity. "It also showed how politically literate we have become, that we will no longer be silent and suffer, but we know that things depend on us and we are ready to take personal responsibility," Mirković emphasized for "Vreme".
People came from all over Serbia, despite the fact that traffic did not work properly or did not work at all, they walked for hours, interrupted their vacations. Ana Mirković interprets this as evidence of their great motivation to live in a justice-loving – and their – state.
For Ivan Stanojević, assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade, last week's events clearly showed that the popular protest is not abating - on the contrary, one of the largest gatherings in the modern history of the country was held. At the same time, it can be seen that the government is rapidly sliding from a spin-dictatorship and hybrid regime to open terror.
"The criminal regime of evil is ready to use all state resources in order to stay in power, of course, by illegitimate means", believes Stanojević, adding that the recent rally also exposed the fact that the police are chasing citizens with batons, intercepting and arresting them for civil disobedience, and at the same time allowing the so-called Ćaciland and all that it implies - ghosts, weapons, swaggering criminals... Finally, the interlocutor of "Vremen" outlines another important, perhaps the most important result of the Vidovdan protest: a synergy is created between students and citizens.
What can this synergy lead to? Does civil disobedience really stand a chance against this kind of regime?
A BOOK THAT IS BEING WRITTEN
If we take into account the events in the wider international framework, and world trends - where everything is bursting with populism and spin - it is not immodest to say that the response of students in the blockade and universities in Serbia in general, then other young people, mainly high school students, who were joined by citizens and through choirs, has no real counterpart for now. That response is in many respects unique and extremely creative, showing hard-to-explain tenacity, adaptability and resistance to manipulation. There are no copy-and-paste solutions, but if a book were to be written today, it would first of all be the one that describes the steps of the local young people's struggle against a spin-dictatorship.
"What is striking to me about that struggle? First, how people adapt extremely quickly. In my science - psychology - intelligence is defined as the ability to adapt to new conditions. I am fascinated by how flexible people are, freed from negative prejudice, how much creativity and healthy mutual communication there is. Just look at how the barricades are moved...", says Ana Mirković, and adds: "All this shows that when people who have suffered repression for a long time are freed from fear and when you give them the opportunity to take over responsibility and by their own actions they change both the macro and micro world, a huge amount of trust and love is released - towards themselves, towards each other and towards their country".
And speaking of books - the president's book about how he defeated the color revolution is hardly mentioned these days. By the way, there is something truly grotesque about the fact that the representatives of the government declare victory every now and then. What does that victory actually look like? The interlocutors of "Vremen" believe that the regime these days does not have many reasons to rub its hands in satisfaction. On the contrary.
"Their methods of intimidation and propaganda no longer have an effect," Ana Mirković believes. "They are in a checkmate position, they don't know where to go next. Vidovdan showed that a person freed from fear cannot return to that state, that the limit has been crossed. Unfortunately, torture is also increasing. But the greater the torture, the greater the rebellion."
Ivan Stanojević is of the same opinion. As he explains, the regime will not be able to deal with such widespread civil disobedience - widespread, legitimate discontent throughout the country - because it does not have "enough manpower and resources to fight against its own people." Simply, they don't have enough police and officers to chase the citizens day and night along the roadblocks that sprout like mushrooms, because the police also have to sleep.
Two things can happen, Stanojević further assesses, either the regime will resort to the Lukashenka model in which people are randomly arrested, although, of course, they cannot lock them all up, or they will relent and allow the crisis to be resolved in a civilized way.
"Knowing them, they will do something violent - but every such move leads them deeper into mistakes," concludes Stanojević.
DARK VILAJET
It all reminds a little of that sentence from the story "Dark Vilayet": "Whoever carries these stones will regret it, and whoever doesn't will regret it." Namely, the electorate of the Serbian Progressive Party wants stronger pressure on opponents and critics of the regime. They see refraining from violence as weakness. On the other hand, every outbreak of violence further motivates the opponents of the regime, especially students, strengthens their mutual solidarity and rekindles the desire for rebellion.
Again, the explanation for this increase in violence could also be sought in "returning to the fathers", i.e. the roots. Namely, the factory setting of the Serbian Progressive Party was set in the Serbian Radical Party; the crisis leads to regression, and in that process Aleksandar Vučić returns to his political source - Vojislav Šešelj. This is clearly recognized in his speeches, moves and way of ruling.
"In the beginning, Aleksandar Vučić tried to act more intelligently and to corrupt students with cheap loans, but over time he lost control. Now he is reaching for what is closest and most familiar to him - and that is aggression", Ana Mirković believes. "That aggression is in their essence, that's all they can do."
And the former mechanisms of oppression no longer work, as well as manipulation techniques. Hence, the government does not know exactly how to react.
"He does not have the power to threaten us," says Ana Mirković. "Many disobey him, he does not know how to react reactively to the situation. We are witnessing a bursting at the seams. The rebellion will grow, and if the EU stops its hypocritical support for the dictator, its interest partner, it will be left all alone."
UNSTABLE STABILOCRATIC
In recent days, even the policy of sitting on more chairs is not proving to be the most successful. Even earlier, there was criticism from Russia addressed to Vučić for the sale of arms to Ukraine (Prime Minister Macut said the other day that he would not support it, but in reality he hardly has a decisive vote on anything). However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the other day that he expects the situation with the protests in Serbia to be resolved according to the letter of the law, and that he hopes that Western countries "will not indulge in their colored revolutions."
Vučić warmly thanked his Russian friend and analysts from this country for noticing "that Vučić will be a bit tougher. I am not like some who fled from Serbia, so I will fight for the freedom of Serbia and I will never leave Serbia to the worst."
That patting on the back with Russian officials, to put it mildly, does not exactly leave the best impression among certain European leaders and in the public opinion there. At the same time, the statement of the member of the Advisory Board of the Russian Duma, Aleksandar Dugin, echoed in local Russophile circles - he had just visited Ljiljana Smajlović - that Vučić's legitimacy had disappeared. Around that time, Donald Trump, who can be trusted as much as Vučić, declared that he "prevented a big war between Serbia and Kosovo" by threatening Belgrade with a trade freeze.
Finally, it remains to be seen how long the greatest advantage of the President of Serbia in the eyes of Brussels will be sustainable. Namely, it is about a stabilocrat who not only fails to ensure stability in the region, but is unable to preserve it even in his own backyard, not to mention at the pedestrian crossing. He is ready to deliver everything that is asked of him - from lithium, via Kosovo, to economic concessions to foreign companies - but even there he gets stuck more and more often. Not because he won't, but because he can't. Perhaps there is no one more obedient, but it is difficult to judge how much longer he will be able to play that card in the current context. And what until then?
DAVID & GOLIATH
Several things are important to mention: the regime does not understand this generation of young people and does not know how to reach them. Even those she awakened do not fully understand her. In the end, it is a very heterogeneous group that is united by the same goal - to live in an orderly society, for institutions to work and not have to pack their bags. The most important thing: if the young people did not succeed in this struggle, the consequences of their departure for the country and society would be even more terrible than what we are witnessing today.
Then, every day one of them turns 18 and gets the right to vote. They despise this regime with every right. Their struggle often, both on the value and symbolic level, seems like a conflict between good and evil. Students and graduates, completely sincere, with childlike expressions, without personal interests other than the common good, correct and eloquent, against the machinery that tries to grind the youth in their own country; wolves with enough courage and integrity not to shake hands with corrupt government representatives, in contrast to the tsunami of corruption and cowardice of those who hold that power; police officers in full war gear against smiling girls and boys who say that it is important for them to know that they are not alone. The government is losing that fight with other citizens too - just look at the ladies in Zemun, or the little girls playing cards on a blanket at the roadblock - because everything reminds of the story of David and Goliath, and we all know how it ends.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT NATIONALISM
Finally, part of the civil public began to "renounce" the student movement after the Vidovdan rally - similar to how the right-wingers had previously renounced them, after the protests in Novi Sad, when the speakers were judged to be too left-wing.
The very choice of date hinted that both topics and speakers would go to the right. But the generation that started this rebellion is, by all accounts, more tolerant than the previous ones, in terms of accepting differences as something normal and natural. For them, national and even religious identity plays an important role - this can be seen at every protest, and especially at this last one - but their patriotism is often not exclusive. It does not operate according to the either-or principle, but is inclusive to a good extent. Hence the pictures from Novi Pazar, hence the exchange of experiences with peers from the region, and hence the speech of veteran Goran Samardžić in front of RTS in which he admits the mistakes of "poisoned from the kitchen for spreading hatred and lies", while the students are the ones who illuminate the future ("That future is what we all want, and the duty of us and our failed generations is to stand up and we just need to follow them").
It does not seem that the same toxic nationalism of the nineties, always directed against someone, which took so many lives, was used by those who still rule today, is used by the students. With the Vidovdan protest, young people, at least symbolically, took over the "deed" on the national level and thereby at least partially narrowed the wide field of manipulation that the government has been using for decades. Which, if that was not the goal, is a good pledge before some future elections.
