Jovović: students returned politics to citizens — the opposition’s moral duty is to stand with them

Radivoje Jovović, a member of the Assembly of Vojvodina from the “Vojvodina uz studente” (Vojvodina with the students) parliamentary group, has stated that students have returned politics to where it belongs — among the people. According to him, the student movement has brought a new spirit to the Serbian political scene, showing that politics can be done differently, without calculations and without distance from citizens.

Jovović called it wrong for part of the opposition to insist on running in the early parliamentary elections of October 25 instead of supporting the Student List. “The moral duty of the opposition is to contribute to bringing down this autocratic regime, something these parties are not doing by running in elections instead of supporting the by far strongest player — the student list,” he said.

He dismissed criticism that students promote “antipolitics”: on the contrary, he said, the student movement criticizes the dominant way of doing politics, alienated from citizens. As examples he cited the actions “Student in every village,” “Door to door” and the bicycle tour “Guardians of the Constitution” — ten days from Subotica to Vranje, ending in Kragujevac, carrying three copies of the Constitution — which, he said, showed a warm, sincere and fresh face of society and restored hope that a different politics is possible.

Jovović also rejected the thesis of the need for a coalition with a “cleanly pro-European course,” asking “why now, suddenly?” — where was this course years ago, when the unity of everyone in the opposition was sought for victory over the autocratic regime.

In the end, he said that first “we must bring down the dictator,” and only then, only in a free society and only with the prior victory of the student list, can one compete fairly — the essence of democracy, according to him, is alternation.

Source: Danas