Djilas: Regime Change Unstoppable

Dragan Djilas (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC/EV)

Serbia’s perpetual state of crisis eventually always leads to elections and the process of removing the Serbian Progressive Party from power which has already begun is now unstoppable, said Dragan Djilas, the leader of the oppositional Freedom and Justice Party, on May 24.

“Those who rule by force fear only force, failing to comprehend that there is no force greater than peaceful masses taking to the streets. Under the pressure of that force, [the regime] blunder[s] even more, thereby ‘opening the eyes’ of those people who until recently [had a favorable opinion of the authorities],” Djilas told the Danas daily.

All of this, the politician maintains, leads to changes that do not take place on the street, but at the elections – a process that has already begun and can be stopped by nothing.

“Simply put, this is the beginning of the end of the [Serbian Progressive Party’s] rule,” Djilas said.

He added that he has never been more concerned than he is now, not because the regime is staging its own rallies but because the authorities refuse to accept the fact that the country is in the midst of a deep crisis.

“The video of Secretary-General of the Serbian Government Novak Nedic leading a few hundred thugs in Pancevo only proves how this regime thinks and what it is prepared to do,” Djilas said in reference to events at the May 19 Progressives rally in that city, at which Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke. “Granting the demands [made at the previous opposition] protests would allow us to commence the necessary changes, to put an end to violence and the promotion of violence in the media, [and] to begin building a democratic country where people will feel safe,” Djilas concluded.