I was born there and I am there every year or so. Most of the information I read here are half-truths or outright false.
In short, a glass roof on a newly built train station collapsed and massacred and killed a bunch of people, many of them young. Yes, the Chinese built it, but according to Serbian specs. Since Serbia is a massively corrupt mafia state, no one was held responsible, so some students held a minor, short and very peaceful protests. Vucic's regime responded by sending masked goons to beat the crap out of them and some of them ended up in hospital. No one was held responsible for that either.
Now, it's hard to overstate just how corrupt Serbia under Vucic is and corruption's role in disintegrating civili society. If you want to have a glimpse of how genuinely horrific the situation in Serbia is, take a look at this video, but a huge CW for the faint of heart, because people are getting turned into minced meat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZHctPA22c
So, basically those Vucic's goons just beating the crap out of peaceful protestors was just the last straw and other students joined with them. Soon many professors joined in as well, since Vucic was beating up their students and they felt morally obliged to rise up as well.
So as the protests picked up, students went to great lengths to distance themselves from any political party or politician. IMO a wrong move. Basically all they want is not to live in a jungle, but in a place where laws are actually observed and applied, but their demands seems vague and (I think) they don't have a clear goal in mind. They even stated they aren't aiming for "regime change" (also a mistake IMO).
Meanwhile, Vucic has been regularly breaking a bunch of laws of his own country, and gloating about it too. He seems to be a sociopath and if you think Trump is bad, Vucic is far worse. The sh1t he pulled can't fit in a book, much less forum post. That includes openly cheating on elections in (at least) Belgrade.
"The economy" is doing ok, but public services are all crumbling and you basically need to pay for everything out of your pocket. It's a true "crony capitalism".
He managed to create some kind of a client state, where he gives privileged government jobs and contracts to a bunch of people, which are then expected to bring themselves and their families to the voting booth. The rest are discouraged to vOtE and lost faith in democratic process a long time ago, so they keep winning. The same template I see in neighboring Croatia.
Anyway I have to stop there, but feel free to send more questions my way.
There’s way too much to correct here. Historical overview is overly simplistic.
Serbian nationalism was a big deal and not just Habsburg’s spin. However, so was Slovenian and Croatian nationalism. These nationalisms came to power with the crumbling economy and incompetence of the ruling communist party which was cozying up to the West/US and, as we know from Kissinger, that is fatal.
All this Serbian economic development is very exploitative, especially in the mining which is mentioned. An engineer from my family was sent as a punishment to one of these mining locations and it’s literally deadly to be there (they quit soon after).
Higher education is free, but only if you managed to get into a very limited “budget” slot. If not, you have to dish out up to 3.000 EUR per year, which is impossible for many families there. Not to mention renting has become incredibly expensive in Belgrade.
Vucic is a crappy, corrupt opportunists and a sociopath who puts Trump to shame. Not some genius who is trying to build bridges between East and West.
The fact Russians discovered he was delivering weapons to Ukrainian regime, is very amusing. He claims innocence, but everyone (and I bet Russians too) knows nothing in Serbia happens without his say-so, especially something like that.
He really did create an “atmosphere” of violence which is felt everywhere including in schools and even, for me personally very sadly, kindergartens. The author dismisses that, which is really disgusting.
Yes, he was cheating on elections and he was absurdly obvious about it. Regardless, it wouldn’t change much, because outside of the capital of Belgrade, he enjoys strong support…but he can't stand opposition.
From what I know, it's rediculous disinformation to try and make the connection between regime-change NGOs and students. To me, the situation students and professors find themselves in looks hopeless precisely because they have no support from anyone, including the Western regime-change apparatus. Also, they are no revolutionaries or IDK Bolshevik vanguard with clear goals in mind, which is why I fear they will not end up in a good place. “Students who just want to attend classes” are absurdly pro-regime actors. Many are not even actual students but were just paid by Vucic to pretend to be one. It’s absolutely absurd.
“Provocations” are made mostly by government actors, which sometimes created hilarious situations like Vucic on TV visiting injured policeman, vilifying students for their “violence”, even though this policeman was beaten while undercover, by the very same police he works for!
Calling this “orchestrated, mass hysteria” is just disgusting…