Monday, January 7, 2019

1 od 5 miliona: Serbia demonstrate against the political system

It all started in the evening of 23rd November 2018, when Borko Stefanović, president of the opposition political party Levica Srbije (Serbia's Left Wing, LS) and one of the founders of the oppositional association Savez za Srbiju (Alliance for Serbia, SZS) was attacked at a public forum held in Kruševac, Serbia. The attackers disappeared, the blood-covered Stefanović and a few activists of LS stayed behind. The images of LS's bleeding president very quickly roamed through the internet.



Stefanović and SZS openly blamed the Serbian government and especially president Aleksandar Vučić to be behind the attack. Nevertheless the attackers were quickly arrested, president Vučić at a press conference said "The state reacted quickly, it did its job and showed that Serbia is not a banana republic where you can attack whomever you want for whatever reason."

Several days later, on 30th November SZS held a peaceful demonstration in Kruševac with a few hundred people. They asked everyone who is against the power of Aleksandar Vučić and his ruling party SNS (Srpska Napredna Stranka, Serbian Progressive Party) to unite.

People in Kruševac protesting against the political system holding a banner "Ujedinjeni protiv diktature" (United against dictatorship) - photo: N. Božović/Ras Srbija/Blic



Reigning Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić has been in power since April 2014 and since then he slowly but surely builds his highly criticized (both by the opposition and foreign analysts) authoritarian system, where he surrounds himself with not really bright, but utterly loyal people whom he put into decision-making positions. He was criticized for cutting press freedom, censorship and media manipulation among others. One of the most prominent examples for this was when in October 2014 Serbian TV channel B92 suddenly ended their show "Utisak nedelje", a weekly political talk show, which has been on air for 24 years and which was known to be very critical and to have an outspoken attitude towards all current governments.
In 2017 presidental elections were held in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vučić nominated himself as a candidate, won it and since then he has been working on turning Serbia into a presidental country, same as Turkey and Russia. (Serbia de facto has got a presidental system, because the current prime minister Ana Brnabić barely has any decision-making chances.) Vučić tries to hold all decision-making actions in his own hands while controlling heavily all those around him. He already has full control over most media outlets (the most notable examples are TV Pink, TV Happy, newspapers Informer, Alo, Kurir and Telegraf and of course RTS, the country's state-owned media service) while the opposition charge him with using indirect physical abuse, as they blame Vučić to be behind the attack against Borko Stefanović - though there are no clear evidences for their charges as of yet.


The first demonstration was held on 8 December, 2018 in Belgrade. The protest was titled "Stop krvavim košuljama" (Stop with the blooded shirts). Thousands gathered at the Belgrade University Faculty of Philosophy to protect against political violence and censorship.

People gather at the Faculty of Philosophy (photo: Maja Živanović/BIRN)


Among the protesters there were quite a number of oppositional politicians as well, e.g. Boško Obradović (president of far-rightDveri), Nikola Jovanović (vice-president of liberal-conservative Narodna stranka), Borko Stefanović himself as well as Dragan Đilas, Belgrade's former mayor. Non-official sources talked about 15 000 demonstrators.



After the protest there was a small but heated scandal over the news report of the Belgrade-based, government-friendly TV channel Studio B. Their pundit Barbara Životić reported about "a rather small number of people", calling the event "an incident of fighting with umbrellas", finally adding that former Belgrade mayor Dragan Đilas had financed the event. People on social media networks heavily criticized both Barbara Životić and Studio B for the biased, openly false reportage. Even the Association of Serbian Journalists warned Studio B "to respect the Codex of Journalism and to make a difference between facts and speculations".

Just the next day president Vučić had a heated reaction on the demonstration. "You can walk as much as you want, I will not fulfill any of your requests. You can gather together as many as 5 million. The only thing you can get is elections, you can fulfill there what you had promised to the people. I will not work under pressure, and this is why I'm different from all those others", he said.
In this video president Vučić openly denies that he would have ever said these words when the anchorwoman of Prva TV asked him.

On 14 December an agreement was signed by opposition parties as well as civil organizations for fair and free elections. BIRN reports that the main point of the agreement was to prevent the misuse of public money in the campaign as well as the electoral roll. They also agreed that they keep the electoral campaign and process under control (incl. Kosovo) not just during the campaign but also on the election day and to sanction every abnormality.
(The president's reaction was that he would not agree, what is more, he himself might call snap elections.)

"A united opposition in fight for fair elections: Mutual conditions are signed to carry out free and fair elections!" says the tweet of SZS.



The next day, 15 December 2018 brought new demonstrations in Belgrade. Protesters chose the hashtag #1od5miliona (1 from 5 million) as a reaction to Vučić's words. On social media sites well-known people campaigned for the protest saying "I'm also one of 5 million, like e.g. author and professor of the Belgrade Academy Siniša Kovačević.




Protesters on the 15 December rally holding a banner with the hashtag #1od5miliona - photo: Maja Živanović/BIRN


Despite the heavy snowfall there was a party atmosphere at the demonstration.


Veje sneg, hladno je, noge mokre ali srce puno zbog slobodnih ljudi koji šetaju Beogradom u borbi protiv nasilja i za slobodu. Narodna stranka Vuk Jeremić #Protest #HajdeDaSePrebrojimo #PoceloJe #Beograd #Belgrade #Serbia #Srbija
Posted by Narodna stranka Vozdovac on Saturday, December 15, 2018



The third rally came on 22 December, 2018. A relatively small but still important event made it especially memorable. This time the protesters demanded (besides all those they demanded earlier, freedom of press and stopping the violence in the political scene among others) to get at least 5 minutes in the state-owned broadcaster RTS's news roundup, as the country's no. 1. public service TV channel had neglected to report about the protests. Yet in the meantime the Croatian public media network HRT gave a professional and insightful report about the Belgrade events.
(I think you feel the irony of this entire situation, don't you?.)



Protesters in front of RTS's headquarters



After the demonstration Serbian interior minister Nebojša Stefanović's statement made another strong upheaval in the public. The minister was asked about the protests and he claimed there were only 5000 people at the rally. "Exact mathematics show me it was different", the minister said referring that organizers talked about 35-40 000 people. He added HRT's report was "instigation to violence on our streets".

Then came 29 December, 2018, the day of the 4th protest. A few hours before the demonstration an unknown person attacked journalist Nataša Jeremić, wife of Narodna stranka president and SZS founder Vuk Jeremić. It was especially significant because not much earlier that month Vuk Jeremić received an anonymous letter with death threats for himself and his family members. His wife's attacker, a 68-year-old man was quickly found and arrested by the police.

These images are already from the demonstration. Nataša and Vuk Jeremić together in the middle of the crowd.



Počelo je (It has started) - the other slogan of the demonstration. Photo: Vesna Anđić/RFE/RL


Journalist Srđan Škoro had a speech where he called president Vučić. "Aleksandar Vučić", he said "you promised that you would listen to the people. Now the people are calling him but I don't see him here. He cannot be seen where there are honest people and a civilised Serbia can be found!"




This image is probably the most iconic of that demonstration, as the huge mass of people (even the moderate estimations talked about more than 50 000 people) takes a turn among the buildings as they are marching.



The next demonstration on 5 January, 2019 was something new. This time protests were held in the bigger cities of Serbia as well...

...in Kragujevac...



...in Požega...



...in Niš...



...in Novi Sad...



...in Kuršumlija...



...and in Belgrade.



Right now the latest turn of events is the possibility of elections in Serbia in March 2019. At least this is what president Vučić has hinted. "I do not exclude the possibility [of elections], because in March or April we enter an electional year, so it wouldn't be anything special", quotes news portal Mondo. N1 Serbia quotes a not too convincing prime minister Ana Brnabić, who was asked in a talk show of TV Pink about the possibility of elections this year.
"Well, I don't know, it's not my decision... I just..." she says.
When the anchor asks her what is her standpoint, she says "Well, yes... the government is always ready for elections, I'm not afraid of elections, I know with what I'll stand out in front of the people."
Political analyst and professor of the Belgrade University Dejan Vuk Stanković said that there might be two reasons behind a possible early elections. "One [reason] is a request for a new dose of political support, probably to face some difficult decision. The other is to strengthen their position in power."

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