WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
"The protests are at their peak and are spreading at an incredible speed. Serbia is on its feet like never before. We can very responsibly say that these are the largest protests in the history of Serbia," said Balša Božović, executive director of the Academy for the Development of Democracy, in an interview with Portal ETV.
That is why the fall of the government and the resignation of the mayor of Novi Sad did not contribute to any easing of tensions, students and citizens did not even notice them, Božović estimates.
"Everyone knows that Serbia does not have a division into branches of government and that all power is in the hands of Aleksandar Vučić. So the time has passed when Vučić could obscure the essence with his media and political smoke bombs, which he tried this time too in order not to fulfill the students' demands. So the demands have not been fulfilled, and everyone in Serbia knows who is responsible for that - Aleksandar Vučić - Božović emphasized.
A historical maximum
According to him, every attempt by Vučić to try to calm the rebellion or divert the focus from the demands through manipulations or fake resignations only further encourages resistance. Blockades are still being organized, student plenums are working at full capacity, and new social groups are, as he says, joining.
"Solidarity in Serbia is at a historical maximum. Serbian society has not felt and shown this many positive emotions in the last 40 years - believes Božović.
He added that the issue of responsibility for the deaths of 15 citizens under a canopy in Novi Sad remains crucial, and stressed that Vučić has so far played the game of exhaustion, but now he is facing a generation that, on the one hand, does not recognize him as an authority, and on the other hand, is not easily manipulated.
"Young people in Serbia do not watch Pink and Happy, they probably do not watch television at all, so Vučić has not managed to manipulate them with his classic tools, the mass media. The students have put him on 'ignore' from the beginning. They told him that he is not competent for their demands, which has masterfully excluded him from every form of communication and conversation - says Božović.
Many journalists, partners and friends from abroad, as he says, ask him if they are "stuck" in this process.
"My answer is that we are not. Only Vučić is stuck. Why and how? Because the request for the publication of documentation on the collapse of the reconstructed canopy is, as journalist Igor Mihaljević brilliantly said, Schrödinger's cat - they are both fulfillable and unfulfillable. If the request is fulfilled, Vučić and his closest entourage will go to prison. It is checkmate from the beginning - Božović points out.
According to him, Vučić has been in shock for three months and does not know how to get out of this situation, in fact he cannot. Božović adds that it is not a question of how long the students will be able to do it, the question is how long he will be able to do it. Time is passing, and this time it is not working for him.
When asked how he views the rallies in support of Vučić, Božović says that the President of Serbia, believe it or not, cannot even organize a rally in support anymore.
The people who come there, as he explains, are not citizens who spontaneously support the government, but employees of public companies, members of the SNS and people brought in buses under threat of dismissal.
"The rally he organized despite all the pressure from the authorities had barely 10 thousand citizens. That many gather every morning in Novi Sad alone at all the roadblocks from 11:52 to 12:07. What is interesting is that these rallies actually exposed Vučić – in the halls full of party henchmen there are no young people, no students, no energy – Božović pointed out.
Responsibility and change
Compare that, as he says, with the student protests, which are authentic, full of passion and faith in change. These Vučić manifestations, he adds, are not only counterproductive, but also comical – proof that the regime no longer has the illusion of sincere support.
In an interview with our media, Božović also referred to the protests in Montenegro, organized by the informal student group Kamo śutra, saying that he believes they have started to spread to all layers of society and all cities in Montenegro.
"The protest demands political responsibility from the relevant political officials who have shown, just like the regime in Serbia, that are more important than the lives of their citizens. It is a sad reality that half of Mandić's and Spajić's government supports Vučić in Serbia while he tramples on students in the streets, and at home they do not show an ounce of personal and political responsibility for the deaths in Cetinje. It is the same mafia. That is why my message is that you should never give up. If the price for changing something is that everything stops, then everything must stop. We only have one life, we have to fight - concluded Božović.
