Student List Rules Out Sanctions on Russia After Vucic Ad
The Students Win list says on X that Serbia would not impose restrictive measures on Russia, a day after Vucic's campaign ad about NATO and young people.
The Student List posted a foreign policy position on X on September 30: Serbia would keep its policy of not imposing restrictive measures on the Russian Federation. The post came a day after the Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia list released its first campaign ad on Instagram, in which young people call for both Vucic’s departure and Serbia’s entry into the EU and NATO. Snap parliamentary elections are set for October 25, and the Student List appears on the ballot as number three.
What does the post say about sanctions on Russia?
The text is titled “Student Program on Foreign Policy and Sanctions.” Its core is a single sentence the list published on its account: “The Republic of Serbia will retain its principled position of not imposing restrictive measures on the Russian Federation.”
The reasoning comes in the second sentence, where the list states that:
the imposition of sanctions on any state, entity or individual is a reflection of a political position, which is not an indicator of a belief that sanctions contribute to resolving political and security challenges
According to N1’s report, the same text cites Serbia’s own historical experience and the direct consequences of sanctions for the local population as reasons.
The post does not stop at foreign policy. According to N1, the list also raises domestic questions, addressed to Vucic as the head of the rival list:
When will those responsible for the canopy collapse be sanctioned? When will we get two minutes of footage from the Doljevac toll booth? Who is to blame for the (non)handover of Gazivode? Why do candidates from the list you [Aleksandar Vucic] lead attack and beat citizens?
For those questions, the Student List says, no debate is needed, only concrete answers.
What was in the ad that came before the post?
The ad went up on September 29 on the Instagram account @avucic. Vucic plays a waiter serving a family at a table, and instead of food the family members order promises fulfilled: the father wants motorways, the grandfather wants no sanctions on Russia and Kosovo and Metohija preserved, the grandmother wants higher wages and pensions, and the mother wants new maternity wards. Two children, one a teenager and one a student, ask that Vucic leave and that Serbia join the EU and NATO. Vucic answers that demand with the line:
We don’t have NATO, but we have peace and stability
According to the description in Danas, he gets the reply “fine” in return.
Kurir claimed in its piece on the ad that the Student List would, in its assessment, probably impose sanctions on Russia by emergency procedure, bring Serbia into NATO and effectively write off Kosovo and Metohija. The paper also said the list answered questions about Kosovo and foreign policy with the words “we’ll see” and “we’ll talk about that only after the elections.” The published position on sanctions does not square with the claim that sanctions would be introduced. N1’s report contains no position on NATO or Kosovo, so that question remains open.
How do analysts read the ad?
Djordje Vukadinovic, editor of Nova srpska politicka misao, told Danas he sees the ad as a move aimed at Vucic’s own voters:
So it is obviously just one more in a series of regime propaganda spins meant to portray the younger generations, and primarily the voters of the “Student List,” as unpatriotic, “traitors,” “Kurti supporters” and “piculici,” through which Vucic actually wants to further mobilize and motivate his own electorate
Tamara Bajcic, executive director of Demostat, reads the message differently. “That is exactly one of the main messages of the ad. Those who want Vucic gone are for NATO and the EU,” she told Danas, adding that Vucic is not addressing young and educated voters but mainly poorer and less educated pensioners from rural and suburban areas.
Do young people in Serbia want to join NATO?
The figures cited by Danas say most do not. The Youth Umbrella Organization of Serbia (KOMS) records in this year’s report that support for NATO membership rose from 9 to 11 percent, while opposition to any cooperation with NATO fell from 53 to 47 percent. EU membership is backed by 53.1 percent of respondents, opposed by 26.9 percent, and 19.9 percent do not know, which, according to the report, is the highest measured support among young people since 2017.
Aleksandar Ivkovic, a journalist at Savremena politika, says support for NATO membership among young people is “at most around 10 percent,” while Vukadinovic puts support across all demographic groups in a range of five to nine percent. Ivkovic adds:
It will certainly be very hard to portray the Student List as a pro-NATO list, because that runs counter to everything the Student List has communicated, directly or indirectly, about its views on Serbia’s foreign policy, regardless of the fact that this communication has been quite limited so far
The Student List is headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic. Whether the list will also publish a position on NATO and Kosovo is not stated in the reports consulted.
