The informal student group "Where Tomorrow?" said they would continue the blockades until their demands were met.
They said they were demanding the dismissal of Interior Minister Danilo Šaranović and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić.
A blockade of the Blaž Jovanović Bridge in Podgorica was organized tonight, from 17.26:18.30 PM to XNUMX:XNUMX PM.
They responded to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, saying that they do not accept that their requests are being answered in a political and superficial manner.
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"We have carefully read your response that you sent us on January 31, 2025, which refers to the demands made at the protests held during January, and we hereby convey our conclusions to you. On January 31, our group was in Cetinje to pay tribute to the victims of the crime that occurred exactly one month ago. You were allegedly at the market. In Cetinje, we were with the relatives of the victims of both crimes. The feeling of pain that overwhelmed us at this gathering has turned into anger today. Therefore, we have made the decision to continue with the blockades that you can expect until you fulfill our demands," reads the response to Spajić, submitted to the media.
It is true, they say, that resignation is a moral act, but they also ask where the responsibility lies for the crime that occurred.
"Is the conduct of the authorities on January 1, 2025 being investigated? Have any shortcomings been identified to date? If not, can you claim that there were none? Who will be held accountable for the fact that after the crime that occurred in Medovina in 2022, nothing was done to prevent such a crime from happening again? Who will be held accountable for the deaths of thirteen people in a city with an area of 910 km2? When do you plan to conduct performance evaluations? Wasn't the crime that occurred on January 1, 2025 a sufficient reason to start the evaluation? We firmly believe that it was. That is precisely why resignations are no longer our demand. Our demand is the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior and the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defense."
They said they were not seeking declarative changes to the system. "We are, among other things, seeking a system in which certain functions are based on accountability, which is one of the principles of democratic, legitimate rule."
"When it comes to more timely and proactive action by the competent institutions on the issue of weapons possession, we will submit all our proposals by the deadline for submitting suggestions (February 24). We must note that our request that a weapon possession permit be issued for a period of one year was not even mentioned in your response," the response to the Prime Minister reads.
They say that the response to the request to reform the system of functioning of police structures cannot be just hiring more police officers, but that reforming the system of functioning means regular training for existing officers and improving their working conditions.
"When it comes to the request to introduce civic education as a mandatory subject in all primary and secondary schools, we particularly insisted on studying the anti-war past, and studying examples of civil disobedience during the militarization of Montenegro. Is such a thing foreseen in the plan?" Education strategies for 2025 – 2035"More importantly, citizens need to know if and when civic education will be back in schools."
"When it comes to the fifth request, improving the institutional approach to mental health care, everything listed in your response is significant, but in this case too, there was no clear response to our requests. The creation of a manual for crisis situations was not mentioned, nor was the possibility of opening a psychological counseling center in the north. The legitimacy of these, as well as other requests related to mental health, was confirmed by the Minister of Health, Vojislav Šimun, who on January 30, 2025, at a student forum held at the Faculty of Medicine, claimed that he was ready to meet the demands, and that he had conveyed the same to you," the response reads.
They asked Spajić why, then, the next day, his statement "did not say a word about it."
"Today, while we are blocking the Blaž Jovanović Bridge, a protest is also taking place in Zagreb, while our colleagues in Novi Sad are blocking three bridges. One of those three bridges is the Žeželj Bridge, designed by engineer Branko Žeželj, the same man who designed the Blaž Jovanović Bridge. A clear message is being sent from all these locations to all leaders of the region. The message is that young people are ready to fight for their ideas and that we do not accept that our demands are answered politically and superficially," the students stated in their response to Spajić.
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