Student List Launches Bike Tour to Kragujevac

The bicycle tour called “Guardians of the Constitution,” the first major field action of the Student List’s election campaign, set off today, September 17, at nine in the morning from Republic Square in Belgrade. Two groups of cyclists left that same morning in opposite directions, one heading north through Serbia, the other south, to meet ten days later, on September 26, in Kragujevac.

The Student List, which appears as number three on the ballot for the early parliamentary election, submitted its signatures to run on Monday, September 14. The Republic Election Commission confirmed the list as third on the ballot the very next day, Tuesday, September 15. The election is scheduled for October 25.

Srpske Novine recently reported on the presentation of the Student Plan in 11 points, the document in which the list laid out its program ahead of the vote. According to the participants themselves, the bike tour was designed as fieldwork, a chance to talk with citizens directly.

Two routes, one meeting point in Kragujevac

The northern group, led by student Laura Zivic, rides through Vojvodina and Macva: Vrsac, Zrenjanin, Kikinda, Subotica, Sombor, Novi Sad, Sabac, Loznica and Lazarevac, before reaching the shared destination in Kragujevac. The southern group heads the opposite way, through western and central Serbia, arriving at the same spot after ten days on the road. Organizers had not specified the exact day by day schedule for the full route by the time this article was published.

Organizers expect around 250 people to take part in the tour overall, once citizens who join along the way are counted in.

Student Mihajlo Jovanovic explained before setting off from Republic Square why the campaign took this particular form.

“To cover as much ground as possible and reach as many citizens as possible. But not just to reach them, to have them see us, to be able to greet us, to give them hope in the sense that they see we really exist, that we’re not just some kids from Instagram, some kids from television and so on, but that we’re really people, students, who are ready to make changes in this country,” Jovanovic said.

Why Kragujevac, and three copies of the Constitution

The choice of Kragujevac as the meeting point for the two columns is no accident, Zivic explained.

“Because that’s where the first Serbian Constitution was adopted, and as guardians of the Constitution we felt that was the best place for that symbolic big gathering,” Zivic said.

She added that, in her view, the Constitution of Serbia is being violated constantly under the current government, and that its provisions should apply to all citizens of the Republic. The students are carrying three copies of the Constitution with them, since the Student List appears as number three on the ballot.

Jovanovic said the tour would stop in a large number of towns along the way so participants could talk with citizens and introduce them to the contents of the Constitution.

“We expect a lot of energy, both among us and among the citizens,” Jovanovic told Danas.

Dispatch from the road: near Trstenica, on the way to Valjevo

While the northern group was still just leaving Belgrade, the southern column had already made significant progress toward western Serbia by the afternoon. Nova TV journalist Radovan Seratlic, who had previously followed the students on what was called the Tour to Strasbourg, joined N1’s Studio Live program shortly before 2 p.m., while the group was near the village of Trstenica on the way to Valjevo.

According to his report, around forty cyclists were riding in the southern column, including a 75 year old retiree who, Seratlic said, wanted to show that pensioners stand with the students too. Before that, the group had stopped in Obrenovac for 16 minutes of silence for the victims of the canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station.

Ivan, a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering on his first bike tour with the students, told the Nova TV journalist that the energy on the ground hasn’t faded even after almost two years of protests.

“It’s a very similar thing. Whenever you go through Serbia, the atmosphere is good. It’s been, well, almost two years now since the protests started, and it’s still at full energy, in full swing,” Ivan said.

If the plan holds, the tour is set to end on September 26 in Kragujevac, a month before the early parliamentary election scheduled for October 25, in which the Student List is running under number three.