Striking University Students: We Do Not Want Violence on June 28, Government Is Losing Support

Student protest (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

There will be no violence during a large-scale student protest scheduled for June 28, because the students are not interested in violence, but rather concerned about Serbia, representatives of the Students on Blockades explained in Vienna, on June 16, confident that a student ticket should win parliamentary polls, if they are called soon.

Speaking during the panel discussion "Student Protests in Serbia: Impact, Challenges, and Perspectives," organized by the Vienna Forum for Journalism and Media, the university professors supporting the protesting students said their support had been stemming from the values the students stood for.

Luka Opruc, a second-year student at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, said that the purpose of making "pro-government students" a theme, was to use it for propaganda purposes and divert attention from important issues the government did not want to address.

Answering questions, Opruc said that the reason the protesting students did not cooperate with opposition parties was that citizens had lost faith in those parties over the past few years.

Opruc also promised that if the elections were called quickly, the students would present a complete platform, the details of which were being elaborated, adding that they would "have a plan for all areas."

Professor Jelena Kleut of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Philosophy cautioned hat the atmosphere in the city was tense, as students and professors were facing repression and arrests.

Kleut said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was "taking revenge on university professors," who now received a mere 12 percent of their regular earnings, warning that the move was pushing many of her colleagues to the brink of existence, as they could no longer pay even electricity and heating bills.