Although student and citizen protests in Serbia are rarer this year than last, their movement is preparing for the inevitable elections. All polls show their chances are very high.
The current president plans to be elected prime minister, according to the logic – where I am, there is power. His camp is still analyzing whether it would be better for them to separate the presidential and parliamentary elections. On the other hand, students say that repression has run out of steam and that the resistance movement cannot be stopped no matter what the regime plans.
“There is so much repression in my country that, literally, I don’t know if I can cross a pedestrian crossing without an intervention unit picking me up and putting me in their police car and taking me to who knows where.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-3lfW0siQ
“We will remain living in this oppression if nothing changes. So, right now, we are fighting for a life worthy of a human being.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-3lfW0siQ
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the student movement from Belgrade motivated young people to take to the streets. Young people from Zenica protested in March last year because they do not feel safe.
“I think that students in Serbia are the great instigators of everything. Because if they had not raised their voices, no one in the region would have protested for certain things at all. They simply gave us that motivation because we see that boycotts are becoming more frequent in Bosnia as well. To some extent, we experienced what they wanted to say, and to some extent, we finally understood the problems in our country. And I am glad that the protests in Zenica were mostly young people.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-zenica-protesti/33341584.html
A month later, young people in Sarajevo protested because of the lack of reaction from the authorities to the tragedy in Jablanica.
“Where is the money? Where is the money? Where is the money?”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-specijal-protesti/33384720.html
“They are running away from us. Here, we have come to their doorstep. Instead of coming here to talk to their people, they are running further south. I should have waited for them down there somewhere to ask them some questions. They shouldn’t be asked; they should be replaced. Nothing else.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-specijal-protesti/33384720.html
But, neither in Zenica nor in Sarajevo did a large number of young people show up, so the authorities could easily ignore them.
“I was disappointed. Again, I hope that this crowd will increase, increase, but I see that it is not increasing. I can set off from Mostar.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-specijal-protesti/33384720.html
Young people say that the main cause is the apathy that dominates in B&H.
“I think that young people in BiH, like other generations, are quite apathetic because we have been trained to be apathetic for 30 years.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-mladi-sarajevo-protest/33404369.html
“There is definitely fear among young people. But I think it is more a belief that nothing will change.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-mladi-sarajevo-protest/33404369.html
Others see the causes in the mentality.
“A mentality of the type for our current situation, “just don’t shoot, it’s good, just let us be alive and healthy”, too little ambition and expectations, limited ambitions, and this is now leading to a slightly more difficult response.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-mladi-sarajevo-protest/33404369.html
However, there are even more serious reasons why young people in BiH are not following the example of Belgrade. Serbia has one political center and one ruler who decides everything, so all the anger is directed at him. In BiH, three parties are in power, and power is divided between the entities, the state, and the cantons. So, the system is fragmented. In Serbia, the protests are focused on corruption and the rule of law, while in BiH, everything immediately becomes an ethnic problem. If students protest in Mostar, they immediately look at it with suspicion in Sarajevo or Banja Luka. And vice versa. The number of young people from B&H who went abroad is much higher than the number who left Serbia. The most rebellious part of the population emigrates, so the critical mass for social change melts away. In Belgrade, the university is autonomous, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is under the strong influence of the rulers. Living in a dysfunctional system for many years in young people creates a syndrome of “learned helplessness” – a psychological condition in which individuals believe that none of their actions can affect the outcome. The moment when the common narrative stops being only ethnic and becomes inter-ethnic, and when the common identity of youth in BiH is defined by this, the energy for protests will exist.
