Block -Blocks replace rallies as Serbian participants require new elections

Because Serbia’s anti-corruption protests enter into their ninth month, they do not show signs of decline-and instead change in their leadership, composition and tactics.

Students who have been running protests since November, saying that the rallies would no longer be headed by the culmination of 140,000 protests on the Slavia Square last weekend.

They set the term on Saturday to call for a fresh election.

If it was not recognized, they invited other groups to take over the protest – and called for a “civil disobedience” campaign from those who oppose the leadership of the President Alexander Vuchich and his long -lasting progressive party (SNS).

Since then, this week, Serbia has popped up, and people have been deploying debris, chairs and other impromptu barriers to block interchanges in major cities, including Belgrade, Novi -Sad and Nis. Local residents’ associations – known as “civil assembly” – are actively involved.

As soon as the police demonstrates one blockade, still jump out anywhere else.

In recent days, dozens of arrests have taken place – together with complaints about excessive police. A number of students were treated in the hospital – one with a broken collarbone – after the members of Gendarmerie entered the law faculty of Belgrade University on Wednesday.

Officers also arrested high school students, causing their parents to protest the central police station until their children were released.

Bright vote range condemned police behavior. The complaints of the Association of Journalists and the party of the opposition center were complied with statements by the lawyer’s association and even the Serbian Orthodox Archbishop of Gregory Durik. The EU, for its part, abandoned “hatred and violence” and called for peace.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade, the pop-up blocks continue-like the next passengers.

One inhabitant, from the equally noticed that she had to go 5 km (3 miles) to work and from work, called the mood as a more like a number of street parties than protest.

But many observers doubt whether this approach will be more efficient than months of rallies, teachers and half -common strokes.

The protest movement began with a relatively simple goal: to provide accountability to the catastrophe last November at the Novi railway station, when a concrete canopy in a recently repaired institution in the second city of Serbia collapsed, killed 16 people under it.

The pouring of the grief was instantly – and the indignation quickly happened.

Most of it was sent to the President of the University.

The large section of the Serbs has long been difficult with its style of the strongman, as it came to power in 2012. But others accepted the firm part of their party in state institutions and most of the media as a compromise for strong economic growth and improving infrastructure.

The disaster station destroyed this silent agreement.

“We are all under the canopy” was one slogan that often saw on banners in the early days of protests. Others included “blood on their hands” and “corruption kills”.

University students accepted the movement management, demanding the complete transparency of the railway station and the persecution of those responsible for the disaster.

Months of the protests eventually forced the resignation of Milas Vuchevich As the Prime Minister. But it was simply replaced by another appointed Vucic, Juro Makut – and otherwise the protest movement reached little in terms of specific results.

However, the protests have taken hundreds of thousands on the streets and enclosing large sections of society.

One opposition leader, Srjan Milivyevich with the Left Democratic Party, compared the moment since the early 2000s, when protests under the leadership of students against the notorious president Slobodan Milosevic “became a national movement”.

Then the coalition of the interest groups stood firmly against Miloshevich’s attempts to manipulate the result of the September 2000 presidential election. Mass protests forced the resignation of the president next month and for the first time introduced to democracy in Serbia.

But despite the efforts to cause the “spirit of October 5”, the current situation is different. President Uchich and his party remain in a relatively comfortable position, and polls show that SNS remains the most popular party.

After the last, big rally under the guidance of students, Mr. Vuchich stated that “Serbia defeated” before trying “to overthrow the state.”

People who block roads in the cities of Serbia see it differently. They are asked to switch through the ballot box – even if it is not clear who will resist SNS. And the president insists that there will be no elections until December next year.

So now, perhaps the question is which side blinks first. And at temperatures that are already pushing up to 40C, it can be more than one summer.