Based on available aerial footage taken around 17:00, the Public Gatherings Archive (PGA) has determined that yesterday’s protest in Belgrade was attended by approximately 100,000 citizens, the organisation reported.

“By reaching this psychological threshold, it became not only the largest protest against the current authorities but also the largest protest ever held in Serbia. More people gathered at Slavija and in the approaching central Belgrade streets yesterday than were around the Assembly during the most critical moments of October 5, 2000”, reports Aleksandar Gubaš, director of the Public Gatherings Archive.

According to PGA’s assessment, this was double the number of demonstrators compared to this summer’s protest against Rio Tinto at Terazije, and simultaneously double the number of attendees that the current ruling coalition has ever managed to gather in one place. The PGA emphasises that this is the largest event in history organised by students in Serbia.

“Among other records, for the first time since the Public Gatherings Archive began recording various types of gatherings, the average density in the open space was found to be greater than two people per square metre”, the PGA statement notes.

They remind that an extremely massive student-organised protest was also held yesterday in Niš, where around 7,000 demonstrators gathered, which in proportion to the population is equivalent to 53,000 in Belgrade. Some of the footage used to estimate the gathering in Belgrade is available on the Public Gatherings Archive profiles and can be freely used.

Belgrade is World Again

The protest officially began at 16:00 at Slavija. An hour earlier, students from the University of Belgrade and the University of Arts in Belgrade organised gatherings at several locations. Large processions of students arrived at Slavija through the four largest roads that flow into it, carrying banners and placards. Following the example of the banner “Belgrade is World” which was a symbol of the 1996/7 protests against the nationalist and isolationist policies of the nineties, some students carried a banner reading “Belgrade is World Again”. From the plateau in front of the Faculty of Philosophy came the banner “General Strike - Students and Workers in Solidarity”.

One of the banners read “The State is the Property of Children” - a direct reaction to ruling party MP Đukanović’s statement that minors are state property. As a reminder, the blockades involving all faculties of Belgrade University and the University of Arts in Belgrade, as well as most faculties of the University of Novi Sad and the University of Niš, are being joined daily by more and more high school graduates and students from across Serbia. Students from several gymnasiums and vocational schools are rejecting forced holidays and have barricaded themselves in their schools.

On the fountain at Slavija, a banner was unfurled with the message “Your Hands Are Bloody”, a symbol of protests that began after the collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad. The death of fifteen people in the canopy collapse on November 1^st became a symbol of the dangers of corruption, lawlessness, and institutional devastation against which citizens have risen in solidarity.

As you could follow on Mašina, students also carried banners with messages: “Corruption Kills”, “Who If Not Us”, “Let the Fight Be Endless, Let Be What Cannot Be”, “We Are Not for Sale”, “If We Didn’t Want to Study, We Would Have Joined the SNS”, “We’ve Had Enough”, “I Don’t Want a Winter Fairy Tale but a Happy Mother”, and messages of support for Zagreb due to the recent tragedy in which children died. Older citizens also carried numerous messages of support for young people and criticism of the authorities.

Is a Tractor the New Bulldozer, Hence Arrested in Time?

The only flags allowed at the protest were the flag of the Republic of Serbia and flags of the We Won’t Give Up Jadar association. As a reminder, immediately before the protest, state universities were threatened with another cycle of deregulation, in the form of equalising their status with private universities of unclear accreditation; in the same period, the Government took a step closer to implementing the Jadar Project, and farmers were deprived of promised subsidies.

When farmers loudly expressed their support for students blocking faculties about ten days ago, several prominent farmers were issued measures deactivating their households for five years. Farmers and students have since “closed ranks”, and these measures were withdrawn. As a gesture of solidarity, farmers cooked goulash for students at the University of Novi Sad the day before the protest. During previous similar actions, students sent the message: “We were all educated by one tractor and raised by one Zlatko”, referring to Zlatko Kokanović from We Won’t Give Up Jadar.

Kokanović, one of the leaders of the fight against the Jadar lithium mining Project and the struggle for agricultural survival, came to Slavija from Gornje Nedeljice by tractor on Sunday morning. According to his address, this act was meant to motivate other farmers to head to Belgrade with agricultural machinery, and citizens to transport themselves to Belgrade despite some intercity transport lines being cancelled on Sunday without explanation (and a train from Novi Sad, full of citizens, being stopped mid-journey, allegedly due to technical problems).

Shortly after Kokanović called for people to come to Belgrade by tractors, a Parking Service vehicle appeared at Slavija accompanied by a large number of police officers. After they managed to forcibly lower Kokanović from the vehicle’s roof, he, Nebojša Petković from We Won’t Give Up Jadar, and - the tractor itself - were forcibly detained. The tractor was towed to the Parking Service car park, from where it was “liberated” at the end of the day. Farmers did not respond to the call, but the tractor was publicly compared to the bulldozer that arrived from Čačak on October 5, 2000, which was used that day in citizens’ storming of RTS.

Thunderous Silence

After citizens gathered and calmed down, at 16:30 a fifteen-minute silence was held for those who died in the canopy collapse. Footage testifies that during these 15 minutes, a thunderous silence reigned at Slavija. The gathered respected the expression of honour to the victims with unprecedented discipline, even giving up looking at phone screens that have become our everyday life, with phones raised in their hands like candles.

The gathering continued with a brief expression of noise and a spontaneously organised walk. The column of citizens walked from Slavija to Terazije, loudly expressing their dissatisfaction while passing by the Presidency. Some citizens also headed to the Radio Television of Serbia building, in front of which a large student protest was held last week. Later in the evening, some RTS workers published an open letter distancing themselves from the public service’s editorial policy, which has no room for protest coverage.

Several hundred students ended the protest in front of the National Assembly building, where they unfurled banners and placards around seven o’clock. After a brief stay in front of the Assembly, students withdrew as planned to their barricaded faculties. As a reminder, the University Law guarantees universities autonomy, so, for example, law enforcement forces may not step onto faculty grounds.

What Next?

The large protest in Belgrade currently represents the culmination of a wave of gatherings which, as we wrote earlier, gained momentum, frequency, and numbers over the past ten days. There is now public speculation about what the next step might be. Should there be articulation of student and farmer activities with parliamentary actors? Great distrust exists between citizens and the opposition from both left and right centre. Could a general strike be organised? The silence from the unions is almost stronger than that from Slavija. Should we expect a transitional government and what should it be like?

For now, it is certain that blockades and protests continue. “Stay with us - we’ve just begun!”, students announced in a post on the Students in Blockade Instagram station. In the same post, students thank those gathered for their support, forwarding important information, and avoiding conflicts. “Thank you for making the effort to forward important information to us and for avoiding conflicts. Thank you for watching our backs, we’ll watch yours too! Together we showed how brave, dignified, and solidary we are”, it states.

The next protest is scheduled for Wednesday, December 25^th at the intersection of Nemanjina and Kneza Miloša - incidentally, the only two rulers in Serbian history who voluntarily and strategically abandoned their ruling position. Between 11:52 and 12:07, students will hold fifteen minutes of silence, and afterwards head to the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office where they will call on Zagorka Dolovac to “start doing her job”.

Mašina

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