The blockading students, as the strongest opposition option, choose – just like all others – which issues to declare themselves on and what to comment on. This is likely because they are trying to use their public appearances to win over and satisfy, or at least not “anger”, the large number of civic- and nationally-oriented people who support them.
Consequently, they sometimes react with a delay, and sometimes not at all, with the exception of students from certain faculties or universities.
The latest example of their failure to speak out is the attack on the writer Vladimir Arsenijević, and more recently, the damage caused to the car of the son of professor and journalist Dinko Gruhonjić. This has left many supporters of the student movement confused. On social media, director Janko Baljak even wrote:
“The Nazi attack on Vladimir Arsenijević in the centre of Belgrade and the student movement’s attitude towards this act will be very important in determining where many of us stand in the days to come.”
In these circumstances, the question is whether their cherry-picking of topics and taking stances – or lack thereof, even on basic things when someone is attacked – could ultimately “cost” the students.
The shift in the movement’s dynamics
Baljak said that the point of his post was that he noticed not all the students who started this whole story were speaking out.
“Compared to the commitment at the beginning of the student movement and protests, now I only see a group that seems to have monopolised it. I don’t know how things work within their announcement structures, but they certainly don’t work the way they did at the beginning. That is something one simply has to notice and feel,” he explains. He adds, however, that he does not want to impose anything, but was merely reacting as a human being.
Asked whether people who are interested in politics, or even those who are not, would and should want to hear the students’ stance on various issues, he answers yes.
“I truly think that the consensus of all plenums at the very beginning and their coordination, even though it was a bit slow, worked perfectly. Unity in diversity and a shared idea – injustice, corruption, violence – united both the students and the citizens. Now, I think that the main idea that started it all is slowly fading, while other things that have more to do with myths and competitions in nationalism, at least in their posts from official profiles, are prevailing,” he told Danas.
He also wonders why students should be untouchable either.
“When we talk about everything, let’s talk openly; let’s not glorify anything. Let’s try to open a good debate in the name of the common good. Not one that will divide us, but one that will lead us to a common goal. I am afraid that ‘the service’ (secret service), along with Vučić’s moves, harassment, and stalling – at which he is a true master – has managed to undermine and poison a lot of things. I react in every possible way when I notice that. I think I have the right to, because from the start I was with them with all my heart and soul, through the good times and the bad, when they were beaten, and when they were in prison. I still have the exact same stance, but why shouldn’t we react to such horrific events? Is there anything more horrific than a person being beaten up? That is something no one should remain indifferent to,” Baljak stresses.
The risk of over-positioning
On whether silence could “cost” the students, Andrej Ševo, a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, believes that it is actually more dangerous for the student movement to take too many stances than too few.
“There is a plethora of polarising topics in this society, and discussing them is something that suits Vučić better, as he is far more skilled and experienced in their political manipulation,” he explains. He adds that the students should primarily send the messages that brought their movement together and made them such a powerful political force in the first place.
“People in Serbia are facing constant price hikes, the infrastructure is strained, healthcare is in a desperate state, and so on. Along with the fight against corruption and the rule of law, these should be the students’ core messages. As for everything else, they should think carefully about whether there is even a need to take a stance,” he points out.
A “sham” political scene and the media’s silence
Meanwhile, cartoonist Dušan Petričić states that he avoids commenting on anything that suggests we live in a semi-normal society.
“The sham political scene in Serbia, where everything is controlled by lunatics and the mafia, does not allow for any serious statements. In my caricatures, I deal exclusively with the relationship between the manipulated people on one side, and criminals, murderers, and fascists on the other. We are still on the wrong train,” he told Danas.
Director Stevan Filipović notes that we are going around in circles, while nobody is telling the truth.
“I blame it all on the silence of the media and the academic community, which, instead of acting as a well-meaning critic backed by expertise, chose to make something akin to a religious cult out of ‘the students’,” he emphasises.
He clarifies that “students” is placed in quotation marks because, as he says, that group label means both everything and nothing, and certainly does not include the actual students who started the protests – of whom only a negligible number are now present in the bodies that shape the movement’s political decisions.
Focus on the ultimate goal
For Ivan Stanojević, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN), the focus is nevertheless on the fact that the student movement succeeded in waking Serbia from a political coma, and that it is certain to bring down the authoritarian-mafia regime that has been ravaging Serbia for 14 years.
“If the rest of us knew how to do better, we would have done something similar earlier. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how and we didn’t succeed. Therefore, I suggest we focus on how to help free Serbia, instead of nitpicking the liberators. In the end, the question remains for each of us: Do we want to win, or do we want to split hairs? Or as the students would say: Serbia or the mafia,” Stanojević concludes.
(Danas, 14.07.2026)
https://www.danas.rs/vesti/politika/studenti-u-blokadi-cutanje/