The angry young generation is rising in protest in India, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland and Serbia, to name a few countries. The common thread that binds them is the demand that their respective governments fulfil their basic needs and aspirations. As they choose the streets and also the ballot papers to vent their ire and frustration over the governments’ insensitivity, they are often being met with state-sponsored repression. When such protests are turning violent in some places, the youths of Serbia have got remarkable results through peaceful means using the ballot paper to change the government.
The grievances are all too familiar – inadequate educational opportunities, jobs and precarious future. In France, the youths are agitating against crumbling and overcrowded schools, while in Greece the youngsters complain about educational underfunding. In Spain and Portugal, housing is the main issue as the youths are worried about leading life on their own without finances to meet basic necessities. Increasing inequality means that they have to watch others grow wealthy, while their own future appears bleak.
As in many of these countries, the response of the government and the ruling party in India is to try to paint the youths as forces of disruption and anarchy and browbeat them into surrender using brutal force and police high-handedness. The youths of Serbia offer a glorious example to dislodge the malfunctioning and corrupt government through peaceful, democratic means – namely, the elections. Protesting Indian youths are also moving from calls to government to fix schools and educational infrastructure to cleaning up the Election Commission which is perceived to have worked to deprive 130 million voters of their right to vote. Compared to other democratic countries, India has the unique position of disenabling millions of voters who cannot exercise their rights any more. A democratic path to change the party in power may, therefore, seem impossible currently.
On 25 October the students of Serbia could inflict a resounding defeat on Aleksandar Vucic’s autocratic government in a snap legislative poll called by the President himself. They achieved it through sustained protests and turning them into a political movement, the way young citizens in India are trying to do. Their victory constitutes one of the most remarkable election outcomes in recent European history.
For well over a decade Vucic and his Serbian Progressive party (SNS) have tightened their grip over civil society and the media, ruling through a combination of cronyism, patronage and bullying authoritarianism. According to a report by international observers of the election, the government made full, unscrupulous use of such tactics to ensure there was no level playing field for the vote. That it was nevertheless routed by a leaderless movement of a younger 20 and 30 years old voters has been noted across a continent in which youth protest is occupying the centre-stage of politics.
The students’ campaign for restoration of basic democratic principles struck a deep chord among the electorate cutting across age. They prepared a Student List of civic candidates dominated by academics, but also featuring farmers and well-known athletes. A turnout of almost 70% – the highest in a Serbian election since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992 – delivered them a comfortable majority.
The Serbian experiment offers many lessons to youths across the globe determined to make governments accountable. They did not join conventional politics or set up established structures of politics. But they won the trust of the people with their freshness of approach. The new government is expected to dedicate itself to the task of cleaning up civil society and rolling back the abuses that saw Serbia plunge towards the bottom of European corruption rankings.
The youth movement in Serbia opens up new and better possibilities. The students’ refreshing journey from principled protest to a catalyst of change in power structure is giving rise to new hopes for what the art of politics can deliver. Governments that have so long displayed smug confidence that they can get away with their politics of loot, false propaganda, intimidation and letting the people down are put on notice. However, the most important lesson from Serbia proves that one authoritarian and his party may not need another single face and political party to be dislodged.