{"id":417679,"date":"2025-01-31T16:59:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T15:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/31\/serbia-proteste-regime-vucevic-cvijic\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T17:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T16:59:33","slug":"serbia-protests-will-mark-the-end-of-the-regime-of-aleksandar-vucic-interview-with-srdan-cvijic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/31\/serbia-protests-will-mark-the-end-of-the-regime-of-aleksandar-vucic-interview-with-srdan-cvijic\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia, protests will mark “the end of the regime” of Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107. Interview with Sr\u0111an Cviji\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Like dominoes, in Serbia the fatal collapse of a bus shelter at the Novi Sad train station triggered the largest protest movement since the fall of Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107<\/strong>‘s regime. Twenty-five years later, another regime is in danger of crumbling in the face of the demonstrations that have been going on for three months<\/a> now, the “violent and brutal” one of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its leader, President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>. “One way or another, this is the end of Vu\u010di\u0107’s regime,” predicted in an interview with Eunews<\/em> Sr\u0111an Cviji\u0107<\/strong>, political analyst and chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

A few days ago, in an attempt to quell the student protests, Prime Minister Milo\u0161 Vu\u010devi\u0107<\/strong>, at the centre of the storm because he was mayor of Novi Sad at the time of the railway station renovation, resigned<\/a>. “A non-event,” according to Cviji\u0107, because Vu\u010devi\u0107 was nothing but a puppet of the president, who in his twelve years in power “progressively concentrated all the power on himself.” That is why, Cviji\u0107 explains from Belgrade, “he had no effect on the demonstrations<\/strong>“: the students did not stop, and they will not stop.<\/p>\n

\"Sr\u0111an<\/a>
Sr\u0111an Cviji\u0107, Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Security Policy in Belgrade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The death of 15 people\u2014plus two seriously injured\u2014in the Nov. 15 incident in Novi Sad has uncovered a can of worms about rampant corruption in the Balkan country, bringing thousands\u00a0into the streets to the cry of “Corruption kills.” Universities are the vanguard of the mobilization: students have set up plenums<\/em> in the faculties, bodies “bottom-up” charged with decision-making and coordinated with each other at the national level. With no political colours and no recognizable leaders.\u00a0“Students are extremely cautious to\u00a0have nothing to do with politics; there is no contact even with the opposition<\/strong>,” recounts Cviji\u0107 again, who was able to participate firsthand as a member of civil society in some of these\u00a0plenums.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the squares of Belgrade and major Serbian cities, unlike in Georgia<\/a>, one does not even see EU flags. Yet both are EU candidate countries and\u2014in Belgrade as in Tbilisi\u2014the markedly pro-Russian positions of their governments also come into play in the mobilizations. But “here the EU is perceived as an ally of Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>,” admits Cviji\u0107, who also served as a senior policy analyst for EU external relations. “Because of a whole range of economic relations. Understandably, the EU doesn’t want to isolate Serbia. Still, it has created this perception,” he further explains, clarifying that “it doesn’t mean that population is anti-European, but that they are disappointed with the EU.”<\/p>\n

At the national level, on the other hand, according to the Serbian political scientist, the avoidance of political labels is not only a “pragmatic decision” to avoid exposure to the “incredibly vicious mud machine” of the government apparatus but the fruit of years of “Vu\u010di\u0107’s anti-politics”<\/strong>, which has made the population “perceive any political actor with suspicion.” It is precisely the lack of connection to politics that is the key to the overwhelming success of the protests: “The students have channelled the revolt of an entire population<\/strong>,” the “frustration of twelve years of this violent and brutal regime,” and “the level of solidarity is incredible,” Cviji\u0107 confirms.<\/p>\n

Indeed, after an initial phase of forcible arrests during the November marches, lately\u2014as during the roadblock put in place last January 27 by students and farmers on two major arteries to the centre of Belgrade\u2014the police themselves did not want to intervene<\/strong> against the protesters. Vu\u010di\u0107’s nationalist party is taking revenge by itself: those responsible for the violence committed on protesters\u2014<\/strong>some 20 people have been allegedly attacked in recent months\u2014have often proved to be affiliated with the SNS<\/strong>, as in the case of the ambush<\/a>, also on January 27, suffered in Novi Sad by a group of students, guilty of daubing anti-government graffiti and stickers on an office of the Serbian Progressive Party, and in which a woman was seriously injured.<\/p>\n

\"Milo\u0161<\/a><\/figure>\n

Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 and, from behind, former Prime Minister Milo\u0161 Vu\u010devi\u0107 (credits: Oliver Bunic \/ Afp)<\/p>\n

“Even when the involvement is not direct, the violence is the result of the instigation and propaganda” of the regime, accuses Cviji\u0107. A regime “that looks more like a mafia organisation rather than a government<\/strong>.” At this point, Vu\u010di\u0107 seems to have slipped into a narrow well, and any attempt to wiggle and climb back up the slope only drives him further down.\u00a0Like the outspoken accusations against\u00a0interference in the protests by “foreign agents<\/strong>\u00a0from several Western countries”<\/strong>,\u00a0which threaten to permanently alienate him from the already meagre support he enjoys in the rest of Europe.<\/span>\u00a0Such as the openness to a government reshuffle and the resignation of the premier: “Now the regime is in trouble because if it simply appoints another prime minister like Vu\u010devi\u0107 it will infuriate people,” Cviji\u0107 explains, “but elections are not an option<\/strong> because the opposition parties have already declared that they would not participate.<\/p>\n

The only option, the analyst indicates, is to “appoint a transitional technical government<\/strong> with two purposes: to free the government-controlled media and to create conditions for free elections.” At that point, it will be crucial to find out whether the student movement will unravel or support one of the candidates. For now, this question does not arise because, more than politics, “a real moral and emotional revolution” is taking place in Serbia. And this, “one way or another, is the end of the Vu\u010di\u0107 regime.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Balkan country, which has been a candidate for EU membership for eleven years, is going through the largest protest movement since the days of Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107. “A truly moral and emotional revolution,” political analyst and chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy explained to Eunews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":417029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26065,26071,30333],"class_list":["post-417679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-alexandar-vucic-en","tag-inserbia","tag-students-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417708,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417679\/revisions\/417708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}