Youth in Serbia Today: An Authentic Struggle, Not a Copy of the Fifth of October

The 11-month-long protests in Serbia are often compared to the protests that led to the fall of Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000. But Anja Despotović, a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, says: “The general attitude among students is that we are not trying to replicate anything. We are waging an authentic struggle and we have clear goals that we are all united by.”

Despotović is one of those in charge of media relations during the blockade. In a statement to DW, she reminds us: "October 5th happened after the elections on September 24th. There was a specific political reason for October 5th to happen," says Anja Despotović.

Her colleague Petar Gardović, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, estimates that October 5th was "definitely a great victory for the people."

"It's an event I first heard about when I was ten or twelve years old. Whenever there were protests, October 5th was always mentioned as something that was successful. I think we've come very close to that now, we just have to persevere," says Gardović.

Young people want to be part of the solution

The values ​​that were key 25 years ago are still key today: freedom, justice, responsibility and civic solidarity. Milica Borjanić, Secretary General of the Umbrella Organization of Youth of Serbia (KOMS), points out this in a statement to DW.

This organization compiled the so-called "Alternative Report" which shows that there is "high identification with the student movement", as 95 percent of young people in Serbia support students.

"Young people today live in a formally democratic society, but they feel that the system is meaningless. The report shows that over 90 percent of them believe that elections are not fair and honest, and half believe that they have no real influence on political processes," says the Secretary General of KOMS.

"What is specific today is that the values ​​of participation, sustainability and equality are more pronounced than before. Young people today are not just against it – they want to be part of the solution, part of the process, to have their voices heard within institutions," emphasizes Milica Borjanić.

Vučić is being fought with "Vučićism"

Historian Milivoj Bešlin believes, however, that there is very little overlap between today's protests and those of 25 years ago. Even after a year of street demonstrations, there has not been the "historically measurable success" of October 5, 2000, Bešlin points out.

"We are no closer to a peaceful resolution and political solution to the crisis than we were a year ago, the students' demands have not been met, the level of corruption in society has remained unchanged, and the regime has come out with the worst personnel and ideological solutions since it came to power in 2012," says the historian.

He also adds that "on the protest side, there is not a sufficiently clear idea, strategy, structure and organization that would lead to a political resolution of the greatest social and political crisis in Serbia in recent decades."

Bešlin also warns that today's students are victims of Aleksandar Vučić's nationalist rhetoric, which has lasted for 13 years. According to him, the concepts of the so-called Vučić's "Greater Serbianness" and the "Integral Serbianness" of Milo Lompar, a right-wing intellectual who is publicly considered one of the figures representing the students, are almost identical.

"There are many young people who, fighting against Vučić, are ready to defend the ideological concept of Vučićism. Unfortunately, the fundamental ideological values ​​of his regime are increasingly being questioned under the unconvincing excuse of not giving him reasons to attack," Bešlin concludes.

United in the fight

For Srđan Milivojević, who was a member of the "Otpor" movement at the time of October 5, 2000, and is today the president of the Democratic Party, the most important thing about today's protests is the following:

"Young people of all nationalities and religions have united in the fight for freedom, justice, the victory of righteousness over perverted and arrogant robbery, which has been completely exposed. Today, Bosniaks from Novi Pazar, Slovaks from Bački Petrovac, Hungarians from Subotica, with their peers and colleagues Serbs from Šumadija and Dragačevo, are fighting together for freedom in Serbia," Milivojević told DW.

What the students are fighting for is "much bigger than some autocrat," emphasizes student Anja Despotović at the beginning of the story: "Our entire struggle did not even begin with a story about an authoritarian regime, about a dictator. (…) We are primarily concerned with changing the values ​​of this society."