Serbia before the parliamentary election: “Fear has changed sides”

For the student list it was the highlight of the election campaign before next Sunday's parliamentary elections: over 150,000 people gathered in the center of the Serbian capital Belgrade on Thursday. There was a winning atmosphere. The huge crowd was a message to the “corrupt” regime: look how many of us are and how determined to defend our electoral votes.

"For fourteen years they cheated and cheated and falsified all elections. They forced people to vote for the ruling parties, blackmailed people in the public sector as well as our professors. Now it's enough," says Anja, a 23-year-old political science student in Belgrade.

You hear something similar not only in Belgrade, but all over Serbia. This optimism is realistic. Most opinion polls put the students ahead of the United Serbia list, headed by Aleksandar Vučić. The former president resigned at the end of September so that he could run for the office of prime minister.

“Fear has changed sides,” they say. You actually see this everywhere. Around 170 companies supported the students. Until now, it was unimaginable that people with a private business would openly support the opposition or advertise in media critical of the regime. The financial or fire inspectorate was immediately sent to punish them.

Teachers, doctors and civil servants were fired because they supported student protests. Citizens employed in the public sector did not dare to protest. That has changed. Serbian society is deeply divided. And both camps see the other side's victory as the downfall of Serbia.

It is unimaginable for the students not to win. The regime cannot imagine losing. So far, it has not shied away from hiring gangs of thugs made up of criminals. They were used during elections or mass protests – wherever they were needed to intimidate citizens. Students, election observers, local activists and journalists were regularly beaten.

But in contrast to the established opposition parties, the student movement has also prepared itself for this. Together with citizens' councils that were founded across the country on the initiative of students, they have “mobile teams” that can be on site quickly if the situation escalates.

They are all grown men who have made themselves available. There is also a lawyer who used to box and ride crazy motorcycles. In addition, which was not the case before, the students have representatives on the commissions of all 8,210 polling stations.

Most local observers fear violence will break out on election night or before the polls close if the ruling parties realize that things are not going well for them. That is why around 170 retired and active members of the police and security services appealed in writing to their colleagues to remain loyal to the constitution, the law and their service in this “deep political crisis” because: “No political interest, no order from superiors and no pressure from the government can serve as an excuse to break the law.”

The former police director, the ex-head of the Serbian security service BIA and the retired commander of the special anti-terror unit SAJ also signed the call. Aleksandar Vučić, on the other hand, is confident of victory. He marched tirelessly through Serbia, broke world records in the presence of the media in line and let his voters know: the student list was a terrorist organization that wanted to ruin Serbia on behalf of dark forces - especially the Croats.

His thoroughly hierarchically organized Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has around 700,000 members who have so far proven to be very disciplined. An opinion poll on which Vučić relies gives him a lead of 7 percentage points. Immediately before the elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the former head of state and wished him good luck.