Until just a few days ago, many wondered whether the student protests in Serbia were losing momentum. Analysts warned of the alarming passivity among the older population. Despite clear evidence of election fraud, orchestrated transportation of Vučić supporters, public testimonies from people paid to vote for the ruling party, and rampant corruption tightening its grip on Serbia like an octopus – for many, it still isn’t enough to join the students in the streets. “It won’t change anything,” they tell themselves, choosing the comfort of their homes over what may be one of the last opportunities to reclaim their country. They wait for someone else to fight and win on their behalf. And if the youth fail, these armchair pessimists will be the first to say the students should never have protested in the first place.
President Aleksandar Vučić now claims he has defeated the “colored revolution.” But among young people across the region, there’s a growing call for perseverance. Two months ago, Savce Goševa from North Macedonia, speaking on the show Perspektiva, put it clearly:
“They now face a long and difficult road ahead. These protests must be sustained; the pressure must not ease but continue until their demands are met, until a democratic system is established in the country. What we can say is that they have our full support.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-mladi-aktivizam-kumanovo/33398181.html
Then came Vidovdan. The students called for a new protest. The regime responded with threats. Convoys of police vehicles began arriving in Belgrade from across the provinces. All train services were suddenly suspended due to an alleged “bomb threat.” City buses stopped running, blocking citizens from reaching the protest site. Pro-government media even fabricated a front page of Zagreb’s Jutarnji list, claiming the protests were orchestrated from Croatia. Police began making preventive arrests, accusing citizens of disrupting state order.
But the youth refused to be intimidated. The blockades and protests, which began on June 28, continue across Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, and more. Disobedience against the regime is creative, persistent, and growing. In one example, citizens repeatedly crossed pedestrian walkways in protest. As police cleared one blockade, another would appear.
This video shows an attempted blockade at the intersection of Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard and Beogradska Street. At 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday, young people sprinted to hold the line.
The authorities responede by removing the trash containers from the streets, as the following photograph confirms.
This woman is sitting alone on the street in front of the police cordon.
Student Stevan Tomić, one of those arrested on charges of undermining state order, was asked how long the rebellion would last. “Until victory!” he replied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN4wa7_Pflg&list=PLtkTKfgc4b4VA7ytBRgVS1tHpQ7cC_VoT&ab_channel=N1
In government-controlled media, the arrested students are now labeled as terrorists. Yet these are the only “terrorists” in the world demanding nothing more than respect for the Constitution.
Across the region, support for the students continues to grow. Still, observers have noted an odd contradiction: many speakers at the Vidovdan protest echoed the rhetoric of President Vučić himself. It raises a troubling question. How can one claim to oppose the regime while sounding more like Vučić than Vučić himself?
There were no such ideological overtones in the speeches of young protesters at earlier protests.
