Novi Sad: Srdanovic Vows Justice for Constitution Tour

The Student List’s bike tour, called Guardians of the Constitution, rolled into Novi Sad last night, September 22, where residents met the riders at the University Campus with torches and white balloons reading “Students are winning.” Ilija Srdanovic, the top name on List No. 3, Student List, Students Are Winning, handed students at the University of Novi Sad a copy of the Constitution, with a message that the Constitution has to be respected.

The welcome is part of the campaign ahead of the snap parliamentary elections on October 25. The team riding through Vojvodina and eastern Serbia set off that morning from Sombor, Srdanovic joined them along the way in Vrbas, and in Rumenka locals greeted the cyclists with fireworks.

The tour began on September 17 in Belgrade, when two teams carrying copies of the Constitution set out, one through Vojvodina and eastern Serbia, the other through the south of the country. The plan is for the two teams to meet in Kragujevac on September 26. The leg into Novi Sad was also followed by Ljubica Oparnica, a professor at the Faculty of Education in Sombor.

Speaking from an improvised stage in the Campus, Srdanovic told the crowd:

The children have already said a great deal and done a great deal. It is up to us to finish the task they gave us: to make Serbia a better, free country, one that will make all of us proud. We will make it a country where justice and institutions function.

The crowd chanted “Pumpaj” while a song by Djordje Balasevic played over the speakers. One of the tour’s participants said after the welcome: “It’s all clear, on October 25 students will win. Thanks again so much, and see you soon in a better Serbia.”

Oparnica also described the mood on the road to Novi Sad, telling the crowd in Rumenka:

I feel great. How could I not? Just look at the atmosphere, it’s simply magnificent. The energy the students are spreading is a driving force. We are riding, carrying the Constitution, carrying the message that students are winning, that they are the ones who should take the lead in this country, which keeps sinking deeper and deeper.

The second team, riding through the south of Serbia, reached Leskovac around 6:40 p.m. last night, where it was welcomed with torches and applause. Today, September 23, at 6:30 p.m., it arrives in Vranje in front of the department store in the city center, with the welcome organized by the civic assembly Zbor Vranje 017. Danijela Stosic Panic, Anastasija Smiljkovic and Dragan Gagi Jovanovic are due to speak at the welcome.

The first team continued on this morning and reached Sremski Karlovci, where locals welcomed it with applause and torches. Srpske Novine had earlier reported on welcomes in Kraljevo and Nis, earlier stops on the same tour.

The tour was pulled further into the political spotlight by an exchange on X. Former basketball player Vladimir Stimac called on Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) deputy president Ana Brnabic and President Aleksandar Vucic to ride a bike for a few kilometers with the students, claiming the government had 32 days left in power. Brnabic answered him today, around noon, on the same platform:

Since they don’t dare debate, their challenge to us is to ride bicycles. Riding a bicycle doesn’t create new jobs, doesn’t raise salaries and pensions, doesn’t secure gas and oil supplies. Dear citizens, if you want Serbia led by people who like to ride bicycles, ride horses, cut hair and cook stew, vote for the Student List. But if you want people who can guarantee stability in difficult times, continued growth of salaries and pensions, who can build new highways, hospitals and scientific technology parks, people who do not run away from dialogue and debate, vote for the Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia list. The choice is yours.

Until the two teams meet in Kragujevac on September 26, and then until the election on October 25, it remains an open question whether anyone else from the top of the government will take up the challenge to get on a bike.