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“Now when you meet people they tell you, ‘Happy Freedom to you!’ That is the new greeting.”—Prof. Slobodan Markovich for Bette Dangerous Podcast, Ep98
Harvard research indicates that only one to three percent of any population participated in Resistance efforts in World War II. But the researchers determined that once a Resistance effort engages 3.5 percent of the population, that’s the threshold when non-violent campaigns can achieve their goals.
In Serbia, a student-led movement ultimately mobilized 10 percent of the 6.6 million population. according to Professor Slobodan Markovich, who just took 40 minutes out of a celebratory party to explain to the Bette Dangerous community what just happened in Serbia to inspire pro-democracy forces.
Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić’s 12-year reign ended in a massive turnout by voters in an election that was prompted by the bravery of student-led protests.
Professor Markovich, a historian and political anthropoligist who teaches at the University of Belgrade, explains how a 2024 tragedy rooted in corruption sparked the protests after a concrete canopy at a railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia, collapsed on 1 November 2024, killing 16 people and injuring many more. Students who led these protests faced savage beatings, were targeted with spyware, but ultimately, their opposition to the Vučić regime led to today’s democratic gains and celebrations throughout the country.
“This whole student-led mobilization ended up with the crushing defeat of Mr. Vučić, like 53% for the Students List and 39% for Mr. Vučić,” he said. “And with 141 out of 250 MPs in the parliament, a total majority and ability to form the government just from the Student List. The Student List also, it should be noted, out of 250 MP candidates, more than 160 have PhD degrees.”
He calls the ‘Zoomers’ that led this movement “an amazing generation with huge potential” and said “that throughout the democratic world, we should learn from them rather than antagonize them.”
He says he hopes that France will be inspired to work with their young people, and he thinks Macron meeting with students was a positive step in that direction. He also said he look forward to “new gains for democracy and civil liberties in America.”
Have a listen to this Bette Dangerous Breaking News podcast and thank you to everyone for your support always.
Prof. Slobodan G. Markovich, MBE, is Full Professor of Political and Cultural Anthropology and Political History of SEE at the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade, and the Institute of European Studies. His books, edited volumes, and studies deal with British-Balkan relations and cultural transfer Europe-Serbia. He has also published works on Sigmund Freud and psychoanalytic anthropology and takes an interest in the history of European pessimism. He has been the head of the Centre for British Studies/FPS since its inception in 2017, a Research Associate at LSEE of the London School of Economics since 2012 and at LSE IDEAS since 2019. Since 2022, he has served as the head of the project “Cultural Transfer Europe-Serbia from the 19th to the 21st Century”. In 2023, he was a Krzysztof Michalski Fellow at the Institute for Humanistic Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. He is a member of Academia Europaea.
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