Who “chosen the fight” before the opposition? – Elections 2024

After the December elections last year, they followed daily protests of citizens whose meeting place was in front of the headquarters building of the Republic Election Commission. As part of these protests, which lasted until December 30, ending with a mass gathering of citizens on Terazije and a protest march to the Constitutional Court building organized by the ProGlas initiativea group of young acrivists who performed in the movement called “Borba” stood out.

This movement, made up of young people and students, had a great influence in the unfolding of protest events. Their actions, such as blockades and performances in front of state institutions as a sign of protest against the electoral machinations that the state was accused of after the elections, attracted a lot of public attention.

The Struggle movement originated from the Students Against Violence group that was formed as part of the protests after the May tragedies under the name Serbia Against Violence, which was later taken over by the opposition coalition bloc in the December elections. As the movement stated at the time, the name change was primarily based on the desire for this movement to gather the entire youth, and not to be limited to students only.

Activist Staša Cvetković on the Borba movement she spoke for Danas in December of last year and said on that occasion that the change in the brand of the movement made it possible for a wider circle of people to identify with them and thus raise their struggle to a higher, more radical level with concrete actions and changes.

After the elections on December 17, the most prominent members of this student movement reorganized under the new name of the Struggle movement and used the platform they received to primarily attract young people to join protests and the fight against the theft of elections.

At the protests, they presented their demands, and in particular insisted on the opening and revision of the Voters’ List.

During those weeks, this movement regularly sent both support and criticism to the opposition and its leaders, demanding that they lead the people and present to them a concrete plan and further steps.

From the very beginning, the activists of “Borba” appealed for the involvement of non-political actors, the civil sector and international actors in order to put pressure on the competent institutions and to hold them accountable.

One of the actions they carried out was the blockade of the office of the Ministry of State and Local Self-Government, when they handed out flyers to the citizens on which all the contacts of this ministry were highlighted and appealed to the citizens to constantly call and demand answers from this competent institution, thereby putting pressure and demanding responsibility for election machinations.

He also organized the Struggle movement a twenty-four-hour blockade in the center of Belgrade in order to draw attention to the election machinations on December 29, after which they joined a large gathering in Terazije, from where they led a protest march to the Constitutional Court. This was the last major action in the organization of this movement.

She separated from this movement after the December elections “SviĆe” group whose most prominent members are Nikola Ristic and Ivan Bjelic. This group continued with performances even after the protests, such as the one when they threw cabbage during the constitutive session of the National Assembly, alluding to the previously stated message sent to the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government that “the voter list is like cabbage”