University Professor: Student Ticket Should Be Nationally, Democratically Oriented

Students (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Milo Lompar, a professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Philology, said on April 28 that the demand of the students occupying the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad for a snap parliamentary election was an attempt to use different, but still non-violent and democratic means, to uncover who is responsible for the collapse of the concrete overhang at the Novi Sad railway station which claimed 16 lives.

"Faced with the astonishing irresponsibility of the heads of the Vucic-Brnabic regime, their readiness to demolish the pillars of society, like education, public security, the judiciary, prosecutor's offices, media, the student protest had to re-examine the circumstances and look for a different path toward achieving their goals. They have remained consistent in their non-belligerence, patriotism and civic-mindedness," Lompar told BETA in an interview.

Commenting on the students' decision to make an electoral ticket for parliamentary elections on their own, Lompar said this was a forced move and risky entry into unfamiliar terrain, and that any ticket actively advocated by the students should reflect the multifacetedness of their protest.

"That is not a simple or easy task. It would have to be nationally and democratically oriented. That would get at the midsection of the political spectrum and at the same time hopefully translate people's sympathizing into votes cast," Lompar stressed.

Asked if and how the students could bring about equal election conditions, Lompar said an interim government would be the best guarantee.