The exit from Serbia’s collective paralysis doesn’t lie in a dramatic gesture by any one side, but in the shift in consciousness sparked by the country’s youth
Serbia isn’t receiving a new government in the true constitutional sense of the word. It is rather witnessing the appointment of a new cabinet under the continued authority of President Aleksandar Vučić. As with the previous administration, this one will serve as his extension – lacking genuine autonomy or accountability. The key question, therefore, isn’t whether the new government, formally headed by Dr Đuro Macut, will be capable of taking on the numerous challenges ahead, but rather how President Vučić will choose to address them.
The challenges confronting Serbia are both internal and external. The government is already grappling with a serious sociopolitical crisis, and it seems increasingly likely that an economic crisis will soon follow. External pressures – such as sanctions against NIS and the prospect of U.S. tariffs – coupled with internal instability that continues to stifle economic activity, are creating the conditions for a new and deeper phase of crisis. Global turbulence only exacerbates the fragile position in which Serbia finds itself.
Viewed in terms of prevailing trends, the prognosis for the current political order is stark. The collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, followed by the eruption of student and civil protests, has triggered a process of systemic implosion and erosion that appears irreversible.
The government is already grappling with a serious sociopolitical crisis, and it seems increasingly likely that an economic crisis will soon follow
As we search for a way out of the crisis we so desperately wish to overcome, we must first dispel a dangerous illusion: that some magical instant solution exists. It does not! No single action – whether taken by those in power, the opposition, student groups or international actors – will be sufficient to put things right. What we are experiencing is a process. As a society, we are undergoing a transformation that we are not yet fully capable of comprehending – as is often the case for those living through historic moments. Only in hindsight will we be able to make sense of it all. A new social paradigm is being born.
There is, however, a source of hope: the students themselves. They are showing us the direction in which we must move. The road ahead will be anything but easy. In fact, we are likely facing a period of hardship, including a decline in living standards. Patience will be required – perhaps more than we are presently prepared to accept. Yet, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
So, when we ask how we can escape this stifling deadlock, the answer does not lie in some spectacular move that we strive to imagine. It rather lies in something more powerful and far-reaching: the shift in awareness driven by the country’s youth. The current system of sociopolitical relations will collapse of its own accord, and we will begin building something new on its ruins. And that, too, will not be easy.
