For five months now, student protests have been taking place throughout Serbia, with an increasing number of citizens, intellectuals, trade unions and many others joining. And although the protests, as usual, started from larger cities such as Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad, they are increasingly being organised in smaller towns. Thus, places like Mladenovac, Trstenik, Bela Palanka, Kruševac, Mionica, Grdelica, Brestovac, Gadžin Han, Vinča, Sečanj, Stepojevac, Selenča, Bela Crkva and many others have joined the protests.

The organisation of protests in these smaller towns gives a new dimension to student protests, and because of this, they become unique in a way. In some of the smaller places listed, locals do not remember the organisation of any protests, especially those directed against the authorities.

However, why isn’t this a more common practice even though protests have frequently been organised in Serbia over the past 13 years? Why is participation in protests in smaller towns considered an act of great courage?

Problems of smaller cities and municipalities

With the exception of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Novi Pazar, the population is declining in all other cities. In medium-sized and smaller cities, this trend is even more significant, and they are losing population at a faster rate. Population projections in Serbia indicate that by 2052, the country will lose 1.5 million inhabitants, proving that the trend of depopulation and aging of the population will continue. Therefore, we can conclude that almost all smaller cities and municipalities are facing a decline in population.

The reduction in population may not bring significant changes to Niš, Novi Sad or Belgrade (at least not yet), but it will bring very significant changes to the daily lives of smaller places like Babušnica, Vladičin Han or Arilje.

As a rule, smaller places first lose commercial bus lines because it is not profitable for carriers to organise transport for a smaller number of people (or at least bus carriers cite this as the main reason for cancelling bus lines). As a fresh example, we can mention that Gadžin Han lost all 6 bus transport lines from September 2024, leaving the residents of this municipality, like many others, in complete isolation and unable to travel to larger surrounding cities, where some of them work or study.

Another serious consequence of population decline is the disappearance of institutions that are vital to the lives of local residents. Most often, smaller cities and municipalities face a shortage of doctors in health centres, or even their clinics and health centres are being closed. In some smaller places, there are no longer branches of the Post Office, Electricity Distribution, pharmacies, and in some places, there are no markets or shops. Cinemas and cultural centres disappeared long ago in these places, but even if they exist, they are most often occupied by party-appointed staff, so they do not serve to meet the cultural needs of the population and young people, but most often represent institutions for employing relatives of the municipal president.

With the privatisation and shutdown of industry in Serbia’s large cities, smaller industrial plants in smaller cities and villages also disappeared. There are almost no jobs. If you don’t work in one of the remaining state institutions or public utility companies, you are left with travelling to larger cities for work, field jobs, collecting and selling firewood, and agriculture.

If you add to all this an arrogant government that ignores the needs of its own population, we come to the conclusion that residents of smaller cities and municipalities are masters of survival. In almost all smaller municipalities, the authorities (usually SNS and SPS) have strictly controlled the political activity of the population in the previous period. If you are not a member of the ruling parties, you will not be able to find a job, and if it is noticed that you have acted in any way contrary to what the authorities have ordered, you will lose your job. The government controls absolutely all jobs, from street cleaning, working at a petrol station, to jobs in schools. If you are not members of the ruling parties, your child may not get a place in kindergarten or a scholarship at school. If you offend the authorities, you may not even receive subsidies for farmers, although you meet all the prerequisites.

By an unwritten rule, the government consists of some of the most arrogant individuals from the surroundings, who have no political culture, responsibility, nor are they adequately educated for the positions they hold. It is more important for them to organise Epiphany swimming for the cross than to repair the worn-out pipe of the village water supply, but no one dares to hold it against them.

If all these facts are taken into account, we can conclude that the life and work of people in smaller cities and municipalities is very difficult, and that they certainly have reasons to rebel. The fact that protests rarely occur in these areas only further speaks to the political repression in which residents of smaller cities and municipalities live. Fear of losing a job or even concern for one’s own safety have prevented citizens from rebelling and demanding better living conditions.

Who are the carriers of protests in smaller places?

We have been waiting a long time for the moment when some (political) entity will mobilise the dissatisfied population and remove the barriers built of fear, threats and blackmail. Student blockades and protests have managed to encourage the population of smaller cities and municipalities and mobilise them in the fight for decent life and solidarity.

It should be emphasised that pressures, threats and intimidation of people have not disappeared, but people, encouraged by the mass nature of student protests and the fact that their children and grandchildren are participating in them, have decided to rebel, that is, to join the wave of expressing dissatisfaction.

However, the organisation of protests in smaller cities and municipalities was not always taken over by students, or rather, they were not the only ones participating in the organisation. Protests in these places represent a synergy between students who most often return to their small town or village to organise a protest, and political and civic activists. At the head of the protests are mainly students, but political and civic activists from the local area are involved in organising the gathering, organising sound systems, inviting people and securing the gathering.

In a way, smaller cities and municipalities indicate that cooperation between the student movement and civic and political activists is possible, because in these locales both sides (students and activists) don’t have many choices due to the shortage of people. Political (opposition) and civic activists will be the first to stand with students because they are, as a rule, already dissatisfied with the authorities. They are also the bravest because they have some kind of protection structure behind them, which consists of their organisations and parties. And finally, they have the most experience with participation but also in organising protest gatherings.

Life in small communities most often unfolds in this way. Despite some bad relationships, disagreements and even intolerance, people are forced to count on each other in order to survive. It will be difficult to survive in a small place without the help of neighbours.

Protests in smaller cities and municipalities are of great importance regardless of the fact that a significantly smaller number of citizens participate in them compared to protests in large cities. And if the government often organises gatherings in these smaller communities, it has actually completely neglected them, and made life in them almost unbearable. On the other hand, students have recognised the importance of small towns and villages, thus telling us that in this struggle, no one will be left alone and in the lurch. They are important because they indicate to us that the locals care about their small towns and villages, that they want a better life, that they are in solidarity with others in that struggle, and that these places are not politically passive, as they are often attributed.

Perhaps the most important lesson from protests in small towns and municipalities lies in this. In order to survive, people must help each other in moments when they are left to themselves. Perhaps the time has come to establish a dialogue between different sides. Students, activists, politicians. It is not an exaggeration to say that some people’s lives will depend on it.

Robert Kasumović

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