Belgrade U Professor: Supporting University Student Ticket Key to Changing Regime

Elections (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Belgrade University School of Philosophy Professor Ognjen Radonjic, who is also a member of an informal committee of experts working to identify those responsible for the lethal 2024 Novi Sad Central Railway station collapse, said on Aug. 10 that the path to removing the current regime is to support the University Student ticket in the upcoming snap elections.

“I believe the key is for those who really want to change this regime to support the University Student Ticket – i.e. [to stick to] one column, because, at a time when the country is run by mafia, when we have a gun barrel pressed to our temple and their finger is on the trigger, any ideological debate or indulgence of vanity is superfluous,” Radonjic told the Nova daily.

This does not mean that other political actors are irrelevant, Radonjic stressed, adding that the infrastructure, logistics, legal teams, overseers and monitors over other opposition movements and parties should be employed to efficiently oversee the elections and defend the will of the people.

“In the end, everything will boil down to what we will do when, around 9 p.m. on election day, the organized criminal group [running the country] declares victory,” the professor concluded.

Asked how one should go about protecting the voters’ will when the regime egregiously violates rules, Radonjic said that an example can be found in the 1990s, alluding to the numerous protests against Slobodan Milosevic’s rule. “What we’re missing now is unity, foreign support and decisiveness. In other words, pretty much everything,” he said.

The professor went on to state that those going against incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic need to clearly tell the public that their electoral will cannot be defended via formal appeals and complaints but through organized activity in the streets, preferably of the non-violent kind.