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Student protests in Serbia led to Vucich’s regime to the crisis. It was not possible to bribe students

A new wave of student protests shakes the political system of Serbia. The three largest Serbia in modern history became part of this wave: the first was held on December 22 on Slavia Square in Belgrade, the second-on January 27 at the important Belgrade road transport hub of a car company and the third-February 1 in Novi-Sad. The last protest took place exactly three months after the tragic collapse of the canopy at the railway station on November 1 last year, as a result of which 15 people died, and many were injured.

These protests are gaining strength, since they are organized by students, not political parties, and their demands are not clearly political in nature. Students demand to make all the documentation related to the infrastructure project of the recently repaired station in Novi-Sad, which was opened with large pomp in July, but fell in just four months. The details of the construction contract were kept secret in accordance with the agreement between Serbia and China, since the project was entrusted to Chinese state companies specializing in the construction of railways and roads.

What seems to be an absolutely neutral requirement-to publish documents that indicate all the subcontractor companies that participated in the project, the cost of the project and the process of choosing various local companies-has turned into an impossible mission for the regime. The reason is banal: corruption. The publication of complete information will reveal the entire corruption scheme.

This will show who and how local Serbian companies choose to participate in state infrastructure projects and how they overstate the prices of work for their own benefits.

For example, the price table from which it would be possible to find out how much the Government of Serbia was obliged to pay for individual sections of the railway and the reconstruction of certain buildings at the station is absent. Even if it had been published, there would still be the question of why they pledged to pay precisely this amount. Only for Novi-Sad, according to the costs of the CIP Transport Institute, it was planned to spend 3.5 million euros, while retired Minister Goran Vesich and President Alexander Vuchich said that almost 16 million were paid. There is no evidence that the government has fulfilled the duty of open selection of subcontractors.

It was impossible for the regime to suppress this wave of student protests, since there is no reason for any criticism of the protesters.

Students make decisions and coordinate them through the plenums - a method traditionally used by student councils since the 1968 Yugoslav student protests. Students have no specific leaders whom the regime could denigrate; They are not organized by political parties (students asked for political leaders not to intervene). Students even prohibit foreign flags in protests so that they do not give the impression that they are organized from the outside.

The regime offered students special youth loans to buy their first apartments and even proposed reducing the tuition fee by 50% (successful students in Serbia are completely funded from the state budget). Students rejected these attempts to bribe on the part of the regime, because they act collectively. Protest students are in the spotlight, loved by a majority of Serbian society; According to a public opinion of last month, 61% of Serbian citizens support them. Students feel that they are changing something and becoming part of the story. Therefore, neither the threat nor attempts to bribe from the regime are results.

Of course, there were incidents either inspired or organized by the regime. On the eve of the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vuchvich under the pressure of protests-a tactical decision of President Vuchich, who tried to discharge the political crisis-four hooligans jumped out of the ruling party in Novi-Sad and beat the student with baseball bats; She later required an operation. There were several cases when drivers drove through a crowd of protesting students at high speed, and two students received serious injuries. But every attack on students only brings them more public support.

The Serbian community is very sensitive to issues of security and well -being of their youth, and nothing incursing its anger as attacks on representatives of the young generation.

Having forced his Prime Minister Vuchvich to resign (previously forced him to resign the Minister of Infrastructure Vesich), Vucich is trying to make a tactical departure in order to strengthen his positions on the Serbian political stage. The resignation of the Prime Minister led to an institutional crisis, which, according to the law, can be resolved in two ways: either the parliament where the Vucich party has a majority will vote for a new government, or if the new government is not elected within 30 days, new parliamentary elections are appointed.

The Serbian opposition rejected the idea of ​​holding new elections in the current circumstances, especially after the clearly falsified previous city elections in Belgrade. Protesting students ignored this tactical step of Vucich and remain true to their specific requirements.

This puts Vucich in front of the dilemma, whom to appoint the head of the new government. He can choose one of his loyalists: for example, the former Minister of Finance Sinish Mali, who is unofficially mentioned as one of the candidates, despite his participation in several scandals, including plagiarism of the doctoral dissertation and the acquisition of elite real estate in Bulgaria. Another option -

To try to form a government from the so-called experts loyal to him, although it will be extremely difficult to find a real expert, ready to take the prime minister in the midst of such a political crisis.

It is important to mention that student protests have long gone beyond the student community. Today in Serbia doctors, lawyers, teachers and bus drivers protest and declare strikes. This has become a truly wide social movement. The protest movement itself is not fundamentally ideological; It has no geopolitical nature. The slogans do not sound neither for, nor against Russia, the USA or the European Union. There are no slogans of Serbian nationalism.

These are the first such protests in Serbia, where democracy, the rule of law, transparency of management and social justice come to the fore. These are the values ​​that the EU declaratively considers the central, but the Serbian protest movement has not received any help from the EU. On the other hand, the Wuchic regime received words of support from Russia, China and the new US administration. The feeling of loneliness is actually a motivating factor in protests: the Batets important for them Serbs love to lead alone.

In Serbia, it is clearly felt as if the whole society rebelled against the corrupt and hard rule of the current regime. More than 200 cities and villages of Serbia held actions in support of students. This is a striking example of the effect of a snow coma; Protests are gaining momentum over time, and do not lose their pace.

At the political level, in the institutions of the country, Vuchich still holds all the trump cards, but he lost the support of the people. It is difficult to predict at what moment the protest movement will move on to political requirements, such as the election of the Provisional Government from professionals with the only task: to organize a truly free election, but this path seems to be the only way out of the current crisis.

Vuchich will do everything possible to wait out the protests, hoping that their energy will run out. It does not seem that the waiter tactics can bring him the expected results. Now at the Serbian opposition is the task of choosing the right moment for political pressure in order to make the Provisional Government form. Given the above, this wave of protests, without a doubt, is the largest political threat to the Serbian regime since 2012, when Vucic came to power.