Chosen by the students: “They have a plan”
Philosophy professor Tatjana Paunovic was chosen by her students as one of the 250 candidates on the “Student List” – a group seeking to reform Serbia.
“The students are fantastic; they have a very detailed plan for how everything should change,” she says.
When the protests erupted, Tatjana Paunovic took to the streets alongside her students. She teaches philosophy at the university in the city of Niš and sees the students fighting for the very values she has tried to instill in them.
“They want to create a new system where people are treated more humanely, democratically, and fairly,” she says.
The candidates rarely speak publicly, so as not to take the floor away from the students. Many have also paid a high price for their involvement; several have lost their jobs.
“Those in power manipulate institutions to punish people who support the student movement.”
Strengthening institutions
Tatjana Paunovic herself, along with her university colleagues, has not received a salary since July. According to Paunovic, this is telling of the Vučić regime.
She points out that the current administration is the successor to former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, who was ousted in 2000 and later stood trial in The Hague for genocide committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
However, Tatjana Paunovic believes the situation has worsened since the time of Milošević. – They succeeded in toppling him because people within the institutions refused to break the law back then. Today, it is different; the government has installed politically compliant individuals who carry out their orders.
“The time has come”
The goal of the Student Movement is to strengthen the institutions, thereby paving the way for democracy. The fact that none of the candidates has any political experience is an advantage, according to Paunovic.
– We do not want to engage in politics the way it is practiced in today’s Serbia; we want to change how politics is created.
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