The resignation of Serbia’s government after months of mass protests seems to have done little to calm the situation. As the country’s political crisis continues, the key to understanding it may be in a question no major outlet asked.

If the resignation of Serbia’s Prime Minister Miloš Vučević and by extension the entire cabinet was an attempt to calm the mass protests that have dominated the country for two months, it has failed utterly.

The country’s university students who have been leading and organizing the now countrywide protests hardly shrugged when they heard the news on Tuesday, and continued their demonstrations as planned.

In fact, the protests may reach their climax in the next few days. Tomorrow, thousands of students will walk from the capital Beograd to Novi Sad in the northern province of Vojvodina to join their local fellow students‘ blockade of neuralgic streets and three brigdes across the Danube on Friday and Saturday. And the Independent Union of Education Workers expects thousands of schools to close on Friday, following their call for general strike in the education system. The union expects more schools to participate in the strike even than last week.

Trying to Regain Control

Some analyists such as Andrej Ivanji from the independent weekly Vreme interpret the government’s resignation as part of a plan by Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić to regain control of the situation. The country may be heading towards snap elections, the second within a year, and Vučić may be banking on the unpopularity of the opposition and the fact that even now his clerico-nationalist party SNS seems well organized by comparison.

Additionally, Serbia’s National Assembly is set to soon pass a bill for a consultative referendum on Vučić’s presidency. He himself had called for this step. Should he not receive the support of a majority of voters he would resign the same night, Vučić reiterated in an address to the nation on Tuesday night.

Given that the country has no functioning government and that by the time of the referendum may still not have one, this would allow him to present himself as a factor of stability in turmultous times, and that the country may plunge into a constitutional crisis should he see himself forced to resign at this time.

At the same time, even supposed bastions of governmental power are starting to support the protesting students and their demands that there be a proper investigation of the collapse of the canopy of Novi Sad’s train station on November 1st, which killed 15 people, that all documents related to the recent renovation of the station be published, and that all responsible for the tragedy be brought to justice.

Dozens of judges have pledged their support in writing, and several courts are expected to hold 15 minutes of silence for the 15 victims of the canopy’s collapse on Friday, much like they did last week.

Additionally, police major Katarina Petrović from Valjevo has started a petition for police officers and employees of Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior (MUP) to support the students. Petrović’s petition also contains a pledge that the signees would abide the law and the constitution in the discharge of their duty.

As of Wednesday morning, almost 300 people had signed the petition – though it can not be independently confirmed that all of them work with the police or the MUP.

They Key to Understanding the Situation

This may seem insignificant. Why it is not, may become clear by taking a look at what has happened off the formal political stage. This includes an incident that officially caused the government to resign, and a question no major news outlet has asked.

In the past few days, dairy farmers and motorbikers have taken to securing the students‘ blockades with their tractors and motorbikes. They do not trust the police to do a proper job at this – even though President Vučić and the now resigned government stated several times how important it was to them that the rallies get proper police protection.

Students have been assaulted at protests dozens of times, according to NGOs. Several of these incidents have been filmed, and in some cases the suspected assailants have been identified as sympathizers or local functionaries of SNS.

On two occasions, drivers hit and severely wounded protesting students in Beograd, apparently on purpose. Both drivers have been charged with attempted murder.

And early on Tuesday morning, four young men assaulted students with baseball bats. One student’s jaw was broken. The students had been putting up posters calling for people to participate in their blockade of three brigdes in Novi Sad in front of a local SNS office, and painted some slogans and signs on the building – including their now famous red hands.

The assailants came out of the SNS office.

It was this incident that officially caused Prime Minister Miloš Vučević to resign. At least, this is what he publicly said.

In their reporting, none of the major news outlets asked the obvious question.

What are four armed young men doing in a party office at three o’clock in the morning?

Perhaps it is taken for granted that this is just something that so happens in the country.

Maybe the answer to this question is the key to understanding what is going in Serbia.

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