Political agenda in the presentation of student demands
Our determination to write openly about the reverse side of the blockade movement and to stand on the right side of truth was neither easy nor simple, but it was the only possible choice. That is why today, with great credibility and trust, we can continue along that path
The political dimension of the months-long blockades was and remains the dominant feature of the revolt sparked after the collapse of the canopy at the Railway Station in Novi Sad, which took the lives of 16 people. Apart from the fact that the Rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, as one of the most influential figures in higher education, together with certain deans, lecturers, political parties and other actors, one by one revealed themselves in pushing their purely politically motivated agendas, the so-called student demands perhaps even more swiftly and clearly exposed the true aims of the revolutionary uprising of the youth, as it was euphemistically called in the first months of the blockade of Serbia.
That is why Kurir insisted from the very beginning on the precise monitoring of what was presented as a demand and what was done in connection with it. The crucial proof that, as a medium of truthful public information, we correctly perceived the political influence on the so-called student activities during the blockades, is the latest in the series of demands – the calling of extraordinary parliamentary elections, accompanied by manipulations surrounding the so-called student electoral list.
When it became clear that all the demands were being met one after another, but that the blockade side had no intention of acknowledging it, the topic of seeking justice veered off in an entirely different direction – and so did Kurir’s reporting on it. Time has shown that we followed the truth, while others followed their political agenda. Let the public judge who was right. At this moment, that task is at least easier, for the fog has completely lifted – largely thanks to Kurir’s commitment to presenting the true picture of reality.
The very genesis of the formulation of student demands during the blockade could already reveal a great deal, since the so-called plenums initially came out with four demands, and then, in general confusion and an inability to navigate the new reality, they kept firing off new and additional demands, following the principle of “take what you can”, merely to maintain an emergency situation at the faculties and further raise social tensions. We warned immediately that this boundless game was in fact being played for certain invisible ringleaders, that student interests were submerged in the political ambitions of individuals, and that the students – the part of them maintaining the blockades – were drawn into far broader and far dirtier undertakings that had nothing to do with justice, democracy or freedom.
One needs only recall how it all began with four demands:
1. publication of the complete documentation on the reconstruction of the Railway Station in Novi Sad;
2. arrest and prosecution of all those suspected of the physical assault on students and lecturers on 22 November 2024 in front of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts;
3. dismissal of charges against those arrested and detained during the protests;
4. increase of budget allocations for state higher-education institutions by 20 percent.
Every rational person could see an “intruder” in this last demand, for amid the proclaimed fight for justice for the victims of the tragedy, a purely financial request had slipped in – that the faculties should secure themselves filled budgets. Kurir pointed out even then the influence of other interests and the role of certain rectors, deans and lecturers in the political enterprise of initiating and maintaining the blockades, with the aim of undermining state institutions and seizing power without elections.
In its wish to normalise teaching as soon as possible, the state rather swiftly met all four demands. The good will to do so was demonstrated immediately. When the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, addressed the public on 11 December and announced that that evening and during the following day all the documentation collected from the Ministry of Construction, Serbian Railways Infrastructure and other bodies (more than eight hundred documents) would be published on the Government’s website, barely five minutes had passed before the students blocked traffic near the Presidency of Serbia and announced that the documentation was incomplete – supported in this by opposition leaders and certain lecturers of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade.
It turned out that many such premeditated reactions by the blockaders would follow, for the simple reason that the violent change of government had from the outset been the undisputed goal, whatever was happening on the ground. This was merely one in a series of ways to artificially maintain the necessary tension, so that the blockade movement could retain momentum, even though it had de facto run out of arguments.
Through our reporting, we pointed out that the same thing happened when, on 25 January 2025, the President of Serbia requested the publication of all documents concerning the Railway Station in Novi Sad that the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade had stated were missing or incomplete. Only two days later, the media of Dragan Šolak – the key link in the blockade’s “inflation” of discontent – carried student statements that “they would not read all those papers”, and suddenly the Faculty of Civil Engineering fell silent – the lecturers refused to confirm that the student demand had been fulfilled.
The student blockaders then presented a fifth demand, in which, following the disappointing impact of the 15 March protest in Belgrade, they requested a detailed investigation by the competent authorities to determine all the circumstances and responsibilities “concerning the occurrence that caused fear and panic on 15 March along Kralja Milana Street”, the day of the Belgrade protest. This was a fabricated affair about an alleged sonic cannon, which served as a new bait for larger gatherings – but they never materialised.
When that investigation concluded, and thus the fifth demand was fulfilled, came the sixth. The blockaders themselves were unaware of how far they had strayed from the quest for justice for the victims of the collapsed canopy when they put forward a demand that doctors be dismissed! They demanded “the urgent initiation of proceedings to determine responsibility and dismiss the director of the Clinical Centre of Serbia, the director of the Emergency Centre, and the head of intensive care for allowing unauthorised physical and journalistic persons to enter the intensive care unit of the Clinical Centre of Serbia without protective equipment and while filming patients, thereby grossly endangering their health, right to privacy, and dignity”. Naturally, this demand too was actually directed at Aleksandar Vučić, the President of the Republic, with whom they had never wished to speak throughout all these months.
“You’re not competent” – the mantra they repeated each time they had no answer to a sensible question – rebounded upon them, for someone’s political agenda ordered the launching of an ultimate demand – new elections. And since the President of the Republic is the only one competent for such a decision, the blockade movement had to step out without its mask and reveal itself to the entire public as what it had been from the beginning – a political actor prepared to seize power.
Kurir’s determination to write about this openly and to stand on the side of the truth was neither easy nor simple, but it was the only possible choice. That is why today, with great credibility and trust, it can continue along that path.
The Kurir Editorial Team