Student plenums push for declaration and new blockades after Slavija
After the May 23 rally at Slavija, plenums at blockaded faculties are drafting a written declaration and considering new forms of protest, including blockades of major roads.
Plenums at the blockaded faculties of the University of Belgrade announced, following the May 23 rally at Slavija Square, that they would draft a written declaration with a rounded political programme and move to new forms of pressure. According to a source close to the coordination of students at the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Philology, the plenums are weighing road blockades and a partial return to educational activity in alternative spaces. The written declaration is expected by the end of May.
After the Slavija rally, which organisers estimated drew more than a hundred thousand people, one of the coordinators of the Philosophy plenum, Andrej Tanko, said the “student movement has turned into a popular movement.” The shift in slogan from “Students Are Winning” to “The People Are Winning” signals that the written declaration may cover questions reaching beyond higher education. Political scientist Bojan Vranic, writing in the weekly Vreme, judged that the movement has the strength of mobilisation, but without a written platform risks losing the initiative.
What the plenums concretely propose
By current understanding, the declaration would cover four thematic blocks: elections and the electoral process, the judiciary, education and the healthcare system. On elections, it calls for a session of the National Assembly by the end of June and the calling of early parliamentary elections for the autumn. On the judiciary, it proposes reform of the system for appointing judges and prosecutors, and full access to inspection of court cases of public interest. The plenums have withdrawn the Kosovo question from earlier drafts, with the explanation that it is not within their competence.
On blockades, the plenums are divided. One group of students proposes continuing the faculty blockades until elections are called; another proposes a partial return to teaching combined with daily protests. A third strain proposes moving to blockades of major roads, a step that opposition parties have not publicly backed. The Party of Freedom and Justice has said they support the students’ demands but leave the concrete methods “to the students to decide.”
How the written declaration is being prepared
According to information from the plenums, a working group of twelve students from five faculties meets daily in the Philosophy faculty building. The group includes representatives from the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Philology, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Economics. The declaration’s text must be adopted by each faculty’s plenum separately, a process that could take several days. A general plenum has been scheduled for May 30.
From the rectorate of the University of Belgrade, Rector Vladan Djokic said 2026 is, in his assessment, a year of struggle for university autonomy and academic freedoms. At Slavija, Djokic said support for the students will grow “if the authorities continue postponing elections.” In Vreme, Vranic argues that a written declaration could give the students a strategic advantage, because they would shift from anti-rhetoric to concrete proposals.
From the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, spokesperson Sandra Bozic said any “attempt to blockade roads is unlawful” and the Interior Ministry would “act in accordance with the law.” Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, speaking to Prva TV on May 25, said police “are not backing down from the protection of public order,” alluding to clashes after the Slavija rally.
The student plenums said the decision to write the declaration is not a reaction to government pressure, but “a logical step in the development of the movement.” From the Faculty of Philosophy, which coordinates the working group, it was announced that the text, when adopted, would be published simultaneously in the plenum notebooks of all blockaded faculties. Milica Petkovic, technical secretary of the Belgrade University Student Parliament, said the plenum is not an organ of the Parliament and that the Parliament does not participate in drafting the declaration.
From the top of the security services, according to a source close to the Interior Ministry, an assessment of the legal qualification of road blockades has already been done. Under the current Law on Public Order and Peace, blockading a public road without traffic permission may be treated as a misdemeanor with a fine of up to 150,000 dinars, while the action of an organised group with the same intent could be qualified as a crime under Article 343 of the Criminal Code. This, according to members of the plenum working group, “is part of the decision on choice of method, not a reason to back down.”
Will May 30 at the general plenum produce an adopted text, or only an in-principle decision?
