One year after the tragic events in Novi Sad and protests in Serbia. Their successes, failures, and expectations

Our director and senior researcher, Dr Svetluša Surova, has just published an article in the Slovak weekly magazine .týždeň reflecting on one year after the tragic events in Novi Sad and protests in Serbia and their successes, failures, and expectations.

Students, along with committed citizens, have been organizing various types of protests against the government and regime in Serbia over the past year.

In this article, Dr Surová summarizes students' demands, support of citizens for protests and early parliamentary elections, the use of instruments of direct democracy by students and citizens, unexpected wins and award nominations, but also failures and expectations for the political future of the country.

"To move forward, we must first come to terms with the past." – Dr Svetluša Surová

Dr Surová here writes that anyone who enters the political arena and wants to win voters' support in the forthcoming parliamentary elections should explicitly declare their values on important domestic issues, such as the country's foreign policy direction, along with their programmatic goals.

"The agents of change should answer the following questions: What is their opinion on the past wars in which Serbia and Serbian soldiers were involved in the 1990s? What is their opinion on all the atrocities, war crimes, and genocide in Srebrenica committed by Serbian citizens, soldiers, and criminals? What is their opinion on ethnic violence against minorities in Vojvodina and Kosovo? What is their opinion on "Greater Serbia"? What is their opinion on Serbian nationalism? What is their opinion on human rights for all, especially for members of various minorities? What is their opinion on the decentralization of Serbia? What is their opinion on the separation of church and state? What is their opinion on the issue of Kosovo's independence? What is their opinion on Serbia's accession to the EU? What is their opinion on the war in Ukraine? What is their opinion on authoritarian and undemocratic regimes in Russia and China? Does Serbia belong to the West? In other words, should there be (only) a change of government or also a change of regime in Serbia? If so, how?" – Dr Svetluša Surová

Link to the article is here.