When the protests erupted, Tatjana Paunovic took to the streets with her students. She teaches philosophy at the university in the city of Nis and saw that the students were fighting for the values she herself had tried to instill in them.
They want to create a new system where people are treated more humanely, democratically and fairly, she says.
The candidates rarely speak out, so as not to take the floor from the students. Many have also paid a high price for their commitment; several have lost their jobs.
Those in power are manipulating institutions to punish people who support the student movement.
Strengthen institutions
Tatjana Paunovic and her colleagues at the university have not received a salary since July. This speaks volumes about Vucic's regime, according to Paunovic.
She emphasizes that the regime is the heir to former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who was deposed in 2000 and later put on trial in The Hague for genocide during the 1990s Balkan wars.
Tatjana Paunovic, however, believes that the situation has worsened since Milosevic.
They managed to overthrow him because people within the institutions refused to break the law back then. Today it is different: the government has installed politically obedient people who carry out its orders.
“The time has come”
The goal of the Student Movement is to strengthen institutions and thereby pave the way for democracy. The fact that none of the candidates have any political experience is an advantage, according to Paunovic.
We don't want to do politics like in today's Serbia; we want to change how politics is created.
