University Professor: Fair Elections Only Institutional Way Out of Crisis

Local Elections in Serbia, June 2 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Professor of political anthropology at the Belgrade School of Political Sciences and the Institute for European Studies Slobodan G. Markovic said on Feb. 20 that preparing for free and fair elections was the only institutional way out of the political crisis in Serbia.

"The problem is that the part of Serbia that is in the streets, meaning every opposition political party, does not believe that the authorities are ready to secure conditions for free elections. Changing the make-up of the government will not satisfy anyone and is only a maneuver by the authorities to avoid calling elections in which they would be the only participant," Markovic said in an interview with Vreme magazine.

He said that it was in the interest of the authorities to buy time and that they were hoping that the student and citizen protests would blow over, adding that: "If the newly elected cabinet is also only briefly in power, I do not see what else the authorities can do than to finally accept the concept of a provisional government which would prepare free elections."

"The student protest marches are mapping an entirely new Serbia which identifies itself as a Serbia released from fear. In the marches that ensued every place which the students passed through, anthropologically speaking, participated in the transition process. This transition was from a place of fear and agitation to something that everyone who participated in welcoming the students, by their own account, experienced as newly-found freedom," Markovic said.