Student List Rallies in Vranje, Novi Pazar: What Was Said

The Student List “Students Win” held two rallies on the evening of Saturday, October 3, one in Vranje at 6 p.m. and one in Novi Pazar at 7 p.m., 22 days before the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for October 25. The Serbian Progressive Party held a rally the same day at the Arena in Belgrade, so the students’ list sent its messages from the south and southwest of the country.

Candidates in both cities spoke about corruption, public job competitions, healthcare and the position of southern Serbia. One question divides the sources: how many people came to Vranje.

What was said in Vranje?

The rally, called “Everyone to Vranje, vote for number three”, began on the promenade near the former Beograd department store in the city center. The co-organizer was the Vranje 017 Assembly, which had invited citizens from all municipalities of the Pcinja District in advance. According to N1, the rally ended around 7:30 p.m. with a music program. Before it started, the media were addressed by Ilija Srdanovic, the first name on the list, actor Tihomir Stanic, Jasmina Djordjevic and Zeljko Hubac. Milena Petrovic and Emil Lilic also spoke from the stage.

Srdanovic summed up the message of the rally in a single sentence:

“We gathered for a simple reason: to send everyone a message about who will win the coming elections. I have also received a local answer: the students will win.”

Srdanovic is a physician, a specialist and subspecialist, so he also spoke about healthcare: the state, he said, must find young doctors and employ them from the first day after graduation. In Vranje he also mentioned his own Vojvodina, saying that people from Vranje are “everywhere, even in my Vojvodina”.

Playwright Zeljko Hubac spoke about southern Serbia and about the system:

“I know that southern Serbia is often on the lips of every government, while in practice it has been neglected by all possible oligarchies. The lack of a system and the fixation on a single leader have led to what we live through today. This is not a fight against one man, but a fight to change the entire system.”

He also referred to the rally the Serbian Progressive Party held in Vranje the day before. “The goal of the other side’s campaign, those who were here yesterday, is to scare people and put them off voting, because they know that with a high turnout they cannot win this election,” Hubac said.

Actor Tihomir Stanic referred to the same rally, saying he had heard Aleksandar Vucic’s speech from the previous day:

“He says they will now pass some law to develop five districts in the south and east of Serbia, so why didn’t he pass it in these fifteen years? And he announces that he will remove some arrogant local power brokers, so who put them there?”

Jasmina Djordjevic, who teaches at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis, spoke about the accountability of officials and about the atmosphere at the rally. “Holding office does not mean you have more rights, but more responsibility,” she said. Before the program began, she assessed that citizens had realized they were allowed to rebel: “I can say that the atmosphere today is pleasant and encouraging.” She added that life should be brought back to the south, “not for life to leave here”.

How many people were in Vranje?

There is no independent answer to that question. Vreme writes that a “large number of citizens” gathered, and Vranje News says Srdanovic spoke “before a surprisingly large number of people from Vranje”, both without giving a figure. N1 and TV Info Puls also give no number for those present.

Informer claims the opposite: that 18 people were in frame when the television channel went live from Vranje, and it calls the rally a failure. As proof it cites a video posted by an account on X, not its own assessment from the scene. Since the available texts do not establish when the footage was recorded or how much of the square it covers, both claims remain unverified.

Novi Pazar: what Soskic and Bakic said

The “3 for 3” rally in Novi Pazar began at 7 p.m. The sources describe the location differently: the Student Movement had earlier announced the city promenade, while Insajder speaks of the central city square. Eight candidates were presented: Adem Mavric, Sanja Fric, Sanela Ramadanovic, Vuk Jokovic, Mirza Ramusovic, Aleksandra Popin, Dejan Soskic and Jovo Bakic. Not far from the stage there were stands and banners of the Serbian Progressive Party. Insajder reports that everything passed peacefully and without incidents, and the sources do not explain why the stands were set up right there.

Dejan Soskic, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, rejected claims that a Student List victory would endanger salaries and pensions:

“Imagine, that when corruption stops there will be less money. Every hole must be plugged, and there will be money not only for salaries and pensions, but also for growth in salaries and growth in pensions and for many things that today remain unpaid.”

He added that an end to abuses would allow incentives for domestic entrepreneurs: “When there is more money in the budget, when the real robbery that has been carried out in our country for years stops, there will be money for incentives, not for foreigners, but for our own people to start their own business.” He called investment in education the state’s key task, because “without knowledge there is no future”.

Jovo Bakic, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, saw hiring by merit as the condition for change. He recalled the military helicopter crash of March 13, 2015 near the Belgrade airport, during the transport of a critically ill baby from Novi Pazar, in which seven people died, among them the pilot Omer Mehic and the baby.

“The institution of the public competition is the beginning and the end. Competitions for all posts in the state administration, competitions for all posts in schools, in healthcare, competitions everywhere. The best candidate goes where he should be, not a party appointee.”

“We cry out for justice. This people cries out for justice,” Bakic said, and of the parties he said: “Parties have crippled this country.” Novi Pazar lawyer Mirza Ramusovic spoke about loyalty: “We do not want to live in a country where being a loyalist means being loyal to the authorities, and not to the Constitution and the laws.”

Local issues: Rogozna, healthcare, traffic

Political scientist Adem Mavric, sixth on the list, spoke first. He talked about air quality and healthcare in Novi Pazar and backed citizens who oppose mining on Rogozna and Golo Brdo. “We all know what the air in Novi Pazar is like during the winter months. Unfortunately, that is not the only problem we have,” Mavric said.

Sanela Ramadanovic said that, according to the competent ministry, exploitation has not been approved on Rogozna, only geological exploration, and she called for strict oversight of the exploration. The audience chanted “You will not dig” during her address. Vascular surgeon Vuk Jokovic argued for decentralizing healthcare and for preventive checkups, and Sanja Fric, a professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, for oversight of spending on infrastructure: “It must never again happen to us that people die at a construction site that someone had previously opened to public use twice in two days.”

What comes before the election

According to the previously published schedule, the Student List ends its campaign with a rally in Belgrade on October 22, three days before the election. A rally in Nis is also planned before then, and the list continues its “Student in Every Village” campaign. Before Vranje and Novi Pazar it held rallies in Novi Sad and Kragujevac. Vucic’s rally in Vranje, which Hubac and Stanic mentioned from the stage, was the subject of our earlier article on the quota for Bujanovac.