Serbia’s Student List calls for dismissal of security officials — The Guardian

Representatives of the Student List, which won the elections in Serbia, called for the dismissal of several senior law enforcement officials. At a press conference in Pioneer Park in Belgrade, members of the movement said they want to place the fight against corruption in state institutions at the center of their future work.

As The Guardian reports, the movement called for the dismissal of the heads of the criminal police, the paramilitary gendarmerie, and the counterterrorism unit. Student List candidate Svetlana Stanarević accused the officials of breaking the law. She also called on the director of Serbia’s domestic intelligence service to resign, saying that he runs the agency as “a party security service, not a state security service.”

Cases following the Novi Sad tragedy

Members of the Student List also supported reopening or speeding up the consideration of cases related to the tragedy at the railway station in Novi Sad. The collapse of a canopy at the renovated station, which sparked the student protest movement, killed 16 people. No verdicts have yet been delivered in the case.

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List candidate and political ecologist Iva Marković said that employees of state institutions should be able to work without political pressure. According to her, this means that prosecutors must pursue criminal cases and the police must conduct investigations.

A movement without a formal leader

The Student List is not a traditional political party: it has no formal hierarchy or single leader. Students compiled a list of candidates, but after taking the parliamentary oath, they will not have direct control over the elected lawmakers.

Political scientist Slobodan Tomić of the University of York noted that future lawmakers signed a commitment to implement the program developed by the Student List. In his assessment, this limits the possibility of departing from the declared course. Movement member Tara Blagojević said that student assemblies will continue to operate less actively, as advisers or a kind of watchdog over the work of the future government.