Scuffles broke out at a pupil blockade on the College of Novi Unhappy in northern Serbia on Tuesday after a senior educational referred to as within the police – the most recent flashpoint within the ongoing anti-government protests in Serbia.
The dean of the College of Philosophy, Milivoj Alanovic, requested the police to enter the college to interrupt up a blockade by pupil protesters which has to date lasted 9 months. In accordance with Serbian legislation, police can solely enter a school if they’re referred to as by the dean.
The dean’s transfer got here as tensions proceed to run excessive after 9 months of student-led protests which have rocked the Serbian authorities, initially sparked by the November 2024 Novi Unhappy practice station catastrophe, which protesters blamed on official corruption and negligence.
Early on Tuesday morning, philosophy college students collaborating within the blockade posted on X that dean Alanovoc had entered the college and stated he needed to expel them.
“The dean simply stormed into the college with a number of professors, modified the lock, and is threatening disciplinary motion towards the scholars. He desires to kick us out. We’d like assist,” the scholars’ publish stated. A number of hours later, they referred to as on the general public to return and assist them.
“The intrusion of the administration into the College of Philosophy in Novi Unhappy and the expulsion of scholars, accompanied by threats of exemplary disciplinary measures, represents an assault on freedom of thought and the best to protest. The school belongs to college students and should stay college students’ as a result of solely then can or not it’s free,” they wrote.
Dean Alanovic referred to as the police on Tuesday night. After they got here, they had been greeted by a bunch of scholars and different protesters blocking the doorway to the college, and tright here was pushing and shoving between protestors and police.
Throughout the evening, the scenario calmed down, however the police remained in entrance of the college in a single day till Wednesday morning. A brand new protest has been referred to as for Wednesday.
Serbian Inside Minister Ivica Dacic stated that Alanovic had referred to as police and instructed them that “a lot of individuals entered the college premises violently from the again and that he and a bunch of professors had been blocked on the entrance”.
“And tonight one other assault occurred on the police who had been finishing up their official responsibility… The gathered demonstrators, the ‘blockers’, tried to forestall the arrival of the Intervention Police Unit, and never solely did they verbally protest, however in addition they bodily pushed, struck and attacked members of the Intervention Police Unit with a view to cease them from reaching the doorway to the college,” Dacic stated.
Alanovic instructed a neighborhood information service that he entered the college on Monday morning with a view to “put together school premises for the upcoming examination interval that begins on September 1”.
“On that event, we discovered a number of college students within the constructing, who in fact can’t keep there outdoors the college’s working hours, that’s, after 10pm till 7am.” he stated, including that he spoke with the scholars and defined the explanation why they wanted to go away the constructing.
Alanovic was not among the many teachers which has supported the coed blockades from the beginning. He tried to cease them from occupying the constructing in December 2024, as N1 reported.
It’s uncommon that police enter colleges beneath blockade. Nonetheless, in April this yr, the dean of the Novi Unhappy College of Sport and Bodily Schooling, Patrik Drid, referred to as the police to safe his entry into the college, which had been blocked by college students. The identical month, police had been accused of “intimidation” after they entered the College of Medication within the southern metropolis of Nis, checking pupil IDs and issuing summonses.
On July 29, males wearing black and bearing no identifiable markings broke up a sit-in protest on the State College of Novi Pazar, an ethnically-mixed metropolis in southwestern Serbia, forcibly evicting college students who had occupied the premises since January. Later, police additionally entered the premises, barring the scholars from returning.
College students have been occupying school buildings in Serbia for the reason that finish of November 2024. The primary was the Belgrade College College of Dramatic Arts, the place college students began a blockade after an assault on them in November throughout a silent vigil in honour of the victims of the Novi Unhappy practice station roof collapse. After that, college students at different colleges an universities began to launch their very own blockades.
