Torches Greet Constitution Guardians in Kraljevo, Nis Next

A column of cyclists taking part in the “Constitution Guardians” campaign rolled into Serbian Warriors Square in Kraljevo on the evening of September 20, where residents welcomed them with torches, the song “Pumpaj” and applause. That same evening, a second group riding through Vojvodina reached Subotica, where they were met with a kolo dance and singing. The rides are part of a pre-election tour by the Student List ahead of the early parliamentary elections set for October 25.

The two cycling groups set out from Republic Square in Belgrade on September 17, one heading north, the other west, through central Serbia and on to the south. The plan is for both columns to meet in Kragujevac on September 26, where the tour will end. The southern group reached Kraljevo after a leg that ran from Uzice through Pozega and Cacak on September 20, having been in Uzice itself the day before, on September 19.

Welcome in Kraljevo

At Serbian Warriors Square, three Student List candidates with ties to Kraljevo and Raska took the floor. Vesna Senicic, a Serbian language and literature teacher at the Kraljevo Gymnasium and the list’s candidate in 94th place, opened by quoting the first article of Serbia’s Constitution, then criticized the government over the state of workers’ rights, healthcare, the media, the judiciary and corruption.

“This young generation has raised its voice and lifted all of us. They’ve given us back our faith in justice,” Senicic said, adding: “That’s why we need the Constitution. The Constitution is a floodgate, the Constitution is a barrier.”

Marija Mitrovic, a physical education teacher at the Forestry School in Kraljevo and candidate in 104th place, struck a different tone.

“As a sports worker and athlete, I certainly won’t be giving speeches like my predecessors. All I can do is invite the other side to a fair fight, to love and to the smile we can offer them,” Mitrovic said, announcing that she would join the cyclists herself the next day. “I’ll do my best to make it through the whole tour.”

The third speaker, Jovana Jemovic, a graduate technology engineer originally from Raska and the list’s candidate in 79th place, thanked the people of Kraljevo for a welcome she called “one worth remembering.”

“I’m glad to be with you tonight, glad to be with you in this difficult but most important battle, the battle for freedom. Thank you for standing together, with dignity, shoulder to shoulder,” Jemovic said. “You can count on us.”

The welcome had a symbolic close as well. Student Vanja Vukosavljevic, who joined the column to accompany it into Kraljevo, handed a copy of the Constitution to a representative of the city’s students.

“I only joined the cyclists tonight to escort them into our Kraljevo, they’ll continue on their way tomorrow,” Vukosavljevic said, urging residents to familiarize themselves with the Student List’s 11-point platform.

Before leaving Kraljevo, dentistry student Veljko Milovanovic shared his impressions with N1: “It feels like we’re riding through a Serbia where the number of people keeps growing.”

Welcome in Subotica

In Subotica, the students riding through Vojvodina were welcomed with a kolo dance and the song “Tri poljupca hocu ja.” Before the cyclists arrived, Sandra Timotic, a representative of Subotica’s students, addressed the crowd, describing the railway station tragedy in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, as an event that changed residents’ lives.

“It opened all our eyes to the fact that we can’t go on living like this,” Timotic said, adding that residents live in uncertainty because of the collapse of infrastructure and institutions. She rejected claims that the students are seeking revenge, saying they want “justice and accountability.”

Engineer Zoran Djajic said the student movement has united residents over nearly two years.

“We no longer divide ourselves in any way. The students from Pazar showed us that, and Subotica is a city where everyone is the same, everyone is equal, and we won’t let anyone divide us anymore,” Djajic said. He also mentioned lustration, the return of money and property, and greater investment in education, culture and healthcare as measures the Student List is proposing.

Nemanja Djuric, president of the Judiciary Trade Union, spoke about the list’s plans for the judiciary.

“To have a judiciary ready to come down hard on anyone who breaks the law. That’s what the Student List will bring,” Djuric said, also citing the Law on the Origin of Property, arguing that it should be established how assets were acquired and who broke the law in the past.

Sources disagree on where Djuric spoke. N1 and Insajder place his remarks in Subotica, while Radio Sloboda says he spoke in Kraljevo.

Where Is the Tour Headed Today?

Today, September 21, the southern group continues on toward Nis, via Krusevac. The northern group took a break in Stari Zednik, where it was welcomed by church bells and hosted at the parish house, with the next stop, Backa Topola, around 1 p.m., before continuing on to Sombor.

In Stari Zednik, student Aleksa Spanjevic addressed the crowd, speaking about the doctored photographs used to attack Student List frontrunner Ilija Srdanovic; the source does not say who published them.

“Discrediting people, that’s what they’ve been doing for 14 years now. Those people have nothing to offer this country. It’s clear their time has passed and dirty tricks are all they have left to use,” Spanjevic said, adding that “that says more about them than about us.”

On his impressions from the road, he said: “And you can really see that they support the students, that they support the movement, that they want change just as much as we do, and that they stand with us at every moment.”

Along the way, the cyclists are collecting residents’ signatures and copies of the Constitution, which they will return to Belgrade at the end of the tour. We previously reported on the leg of the tour when the students presented their platform in Nis and ran into Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) campaign stands.