What Progressive Movements Around the World Can Learn From Serbia's Student List
Their success is the result of rebellion, energy, persistence, solidarity, courage, humor, nonviolence, utopian aspirations, and strong bottom-up organization.
Two years ago, Serbian students started their protests, endorsed by many citizens, in an honest, almost naive way. They declared that they wanted the end of corruption, press freedom, prosecution of the culprits behind the collapse of the Novi Sad rail station canopy, and, ultimately, another Serbia altogether. Students persistently claimed that entering politics was not their aim. But given all the issues they called in question, politics remained the name of the game. Nevertheless, they managed to stick with their grassroots methods of organization, and their influence spread.
For the last two years, students continued to act without leaders, and all decisions have been made in plenary meetings, a horizontal, non-hierarchical form of decision-making. This has been direct democracy at its best. It also represents an authentic form of political expression that transcends the impotence of the outdated options available within the existing system.
The ”Student List“ that appeared on the ballot in the recent Serbian elections emerged from the massive protests known as “Students in Blockade,” founded on September 9 with the slogan Students Are Winning. It became No. 3 on the ballot for the parliamentary election. Its program, the 11-point “Student Plan,” centers on the fight against corruption and organized crime and endorses new social measures in education, housing, and healthcare. It has been written in cooperation with experts from various fields, including farmers, doctors, teachers, social and cultural workers. According to its statute:
it is a voluntary, non-governmental, non-partisan, and non-profit association established for a fixed period to raise civic awareness of the importance of democracy and free and fair elections. Its goals include greater youth participation in democratic processes, monitoring elections and referendums, promoting the rule of law and freedom of speech, and holding those who break the law accountable.
The Student List consists not of students but of 250 academics, professionals, and public figures selected by student plenums, and is headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanović. However, he is not, in the words of the students, the leader. In his own words, he is the first name on the Student List—though not its lead candidate. As he put it:
I don’t think that the invitation to the Student List was an invitation to be a candidate for deputy in front of a political option, but literally an invitation to get involved in the endeavour of Serbia’s victory over the mafia. The mafia stole our country, drove tens and hundreds of thousands of young people abroad, and ravaged the budget, eventually causing a tragedy in which 16 of my fellow citizens died.
In the last month, however, some actions and proclamations of the students gave pause to sympathetic observers from Serbia and neighboring countries. Such commentators are asking about students’ positions toward Russia, the EU, Kosovo, and war criminal Ratko Mladić. In an excellent article published in the Serbian independent media, Dejan Ilić describes how the younger generations are infected by their upbringing in Serbia, which has been prone to selective memory and to a victim mentality. But he continues:
There is little that can be done about that overnight. All we can do is marvel at how courageously those children stood up and confronted an arrogant, heartless regime with an excessive propensity for violence. Now that they have risen, all we can do is stand beside them and try to protect them from excessive repression… We have elections ahead of us. And in those elections, there is one, and only one, important, shared objective: to be freed from the regime headed by Vučić… These are elections for liberation… we should fight for the chance to create a normal and decent Serbia… There is a well-known rallying cry of militant democracy: no democracy for the enemies of democracy. Something similar should apply to Vučić during this campaign: no polite conversation with an enemy of all conversation and all decency.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was by no means sitting around idle during the grassroots mobilization. Over the years, he seriously damaged independent media. He placed supporters with murky, often criminal background in tents known as Ćaciland, in Pionirski park in front of the Parliament in Belgrade as an intimidation tactic, and he used all known propaganda mechanisms to label students dangerous foreign agents ready to destroy Serbia. He recently stepped down as president of Serbia with the intention of becoming prime minister.
He continued a danse macabre that has ruined all the values of a democratic, civilized country, achieving everything which he has accused students of wanting to accomplish. He sucked up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, flattered US President Donald Trump, cozied up to China as a partner, and lied to the EU.
For good measure, he manipulated his own supporters mercilessly. Vučić told them that WWIII was inevitable. He warned that Croatians were intervening in the Serbian elections, together with unnamed foreign powers. Following Trump’s recipe, he bragged about his enormous achievements and the bright future that would soon come under his leadership At the last pre-election rally of his party, he roared: “Let us never forget how they tried to bring down our state. Let us always protect and defend it… Let us go out and defeat them! Defeat them decisively!”
While Vucic was addressing this rather sparsely attended rally, at least 150,000 people gathered at Slavia, one of Belgrade’s main squares, which had witnessed innumerable protests over the years. In a completely different atmosphere, one of the student speakers said, “Today is the last rally, and it’s important that we all come here to send a message of love and peace and that we see each other on the 25th at the polling stations.”
Before Serbia’s 6.45 million voters went to the polls on October 25, several different scenarios were discussed in the press at home and abroad. One was that Vučić and his right-wing populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) would win but that mass unrest would ensue. According to another scenario, Vučić would lose and not accept the results, which could lead to state violence against opposition activists. The third was that Student List would win and face numerous challenges in their effort to dismantle the long standing and thoroughly corrupt authoritarian bureaucracy. Government manipulation, civil unrest, and institutional paralysis figured in virtually all of the analyses.
Much also depended on the turnout. If turnout went above 70 or even 80%, the Student List could benefit. According to one Dutch commentator:
If there are long lines in front of the polling stations on Sunday morning—just like earlier in Hungary this year—the elections could lead to a historic upheaval for Serbia. If many voters stay at home, there is a good chance that Vučić has weathered the biggest protest storm in years, and the autocratic leader will be able to move the country further to his hand.
On Election Day
From early morning, citizens lined up in front of the polling stations, promising a hefty turnout. The turnout was 70%. From the outset, observers reported numerous irregularities, including suspicions of vote buying.
Tough guys with balaclavas and dressed in black began to appear as the voting day progressed. More and more physical attacks on citizens and journalists in all parts of Serbia have been reported. The possibility of violence provoked by the state and the ruling party was on everybody’s mind.
But the supporters of the Student List were in high spirits. As always, they made a lot of noise, including songs, and waved red-and-white balloons and banners. But at the same time, they called on citizens not to gather near places like the center of the capital where more and more police and non-uniformed persons were gathering.
The polling stations closed at 8:00 pm, and the waiting started. Croatian political analyst and philosopher Žarko Puhovski said, a few minutes after:
In Serbia, it is very important for that regime to leave, because I really think that Vučić’s regime is not only autocratic, but has also caused damage to Serbia by primitivizing those parts of Serbia that were not primitivized even during Milosevic’s time. In all countries you have primitive and backward regions, but Vučić primitivized the whole of Serbia. And that is why it is good that this country and its citizens finally get rid of him.
And they did.
After the Elections
At 9:35 pm, Aleksandar Vučić addressed the headquarters of the Serbian Progressive Party and admitted defeat. The Student List had won with 53% of the votes, which means 141 seats in the parliament. The United Serbia party of Vučić captured only 38.8% of the vote, which amounts to 103 seats. No other parties secured seats in the parliament except for a few very small parties representing minorities.
Outside, throughout Serbia, the singing immediately increased. The blaring of car horns became deafening as citizens filled the streets to celebrate the victory, many barely believing what had just happened. While celebration round the country was gaining momentum, cameras in Belgrade filmed the men in black running away from Ćaciland, while police forces watched in silence. The only time when citizens came close to violence was when they dismantled the Ćaciland tents, which had become the symbol of Vučić’s style of governing.
Vučić’ didn’t wait long before revealing his true nature. His further comments in his concession speech are telling:
This was the validation of a revolution carried out with the direct support of various European countries and the American "deep state"—the faction that opposes President Trump… I congratulate them—though they are merely the ones carrying out the work, the "dirty work" devised by someone else to bring down a sovereign nation… You’ve succeeded for the moment. But for how long?… We will defeat this evil sooner than they think.
The Student List offers a lesson to all progressive movements around the world. Their success is the result of rebellion, energy, persistence, solidarity, courage, humor, nonviolence, utopian aspirations, and strong bottom-up organization. Their victory differs in two main respects from other comparable electoral efforts in other parts of the world. Serbian students formed a movement and not a party, and they do not have a strong, charismatic personality that could function like a father figure. And they succeeded.
The task in front of them is enormous, and it is hard to predict what the future will bring. As the poet Branko Miljković wrote, “Will freedom be able to sing as the slaves sang about her?” One can hope so.
