Student walkers on the way to Loznica; Photo: Stefan Kostić

“Today when we have gathered here on the day when we defeated fascism [80 years ago], we need to ask one question – did we defeat it? Back then we did, but it has appeared again, disguised and through its emissaries, from here, the overlords of the 21^st century, once again plundering, occupying and devastating our beautiful Serbia!”, stated Nikola Marčetić, a student of the Faculty of Music at Belgrade University, in his speech at the March on the Drina protest. Marčetić stated that the instruments through which fascism conquers ground today are bribery and corruption.

“Today we are fighting against manipulators and criminals, henchmen of bloody capital from all global centres of power. Sisters and brothers, what can they do against us? Nothing! What can a Rio Tinto do against us? Nothing! We will defeat them, like many others who in the past tried to subjugate the Serbian peasant and householder”, Marčetić stated in a speech that attracted much public attention.

Walking as an expression of heroism
The protest held in Loznica on the ninth of May, Victory Day against fascism, lasted from 11 in the morning until 11 in the evening. It was preceded by the welcoming of about a thousand students who had walked to Loznica over four days from several directions. As a reminder, the walks to protest locations began a few months ago with the “walk” of Belgrade University students to a protest in Novi Sad, and have since become established as a successful method of breaking through media barriers, informing the population about the student movement and their demands, freeing citizens from learned helplessness and inspiring them to organise.

The walks, which have taken place over the past months even in the most difficult weather conditions, have become a symbol of heroism, even martyrdom of young people, who sacrifice comfort and risk their health to, as they say, contribute to the betterment of the whole society.

Addressing the protest, Professor Ljiljana Tomović thanked the students who several months ago “stopped their lives, studies and learning, realising they could no longer live in a country that does not respect truth, justice, freedom, science and nature”. Tomović noted that the Loznica area is characterised by the coexistence of nature and humans, which is rare in the world. “The struggle of the people from Jadar (against lithium mining) has been going on for too long. They know well what it means to have no freedom, no justice, no rights on their ancestral land”, Tomović noted. According to her, in Jadar they are “defending something that none of us can lose – the right to a healthy life”.

Neither water nor transport
“Water is the future of the world. Besides food, whoever has water will have something to live on. That’s what we’re fighting for”, emphasised Kokanović during the presentation of preparations for the protest, introducing the public to drinking water from a nearby spring, which is also bottled. Ne damo Jadar (We Won’t Give Up Jadar), the Alliance of Environmental Organisations of Serbia and other nature protection organisations consistently emphasise that they advocate for water safety and food sovereignty. “We advocate for being a food factory”, state those from Ne damo Jadar. The ingredients for the food that members of Ne damo Jadar cooked at this protest, as they have done at previous protests, were obtained from voluntary donations from citizens.

As members of the Ne damo Jadar association informed the public during preparations for the protest, the local municipal water supply company refused to provide a truck of drinking water for the demonstrators, explaining that the tanker was broken. “What would happen if there was an accident, floods, fires, bursting pipes – how would they provide drinking water for people?”, Kokanović asked the company director.

From Ne damo Jadar they also claim that none of the city’s private transporters agreed to have their vehicles engaged for transporting students from Vuk’s Square in Loznica to the accommodation. “The answer was that they dare not because their firms would be closed”, and large transporters, Kokanović noted, didn’t even want to talk.

Entrance to Gornje Nedeljice; Photo: Mašina

Without divisions, in the struggle to save the state
On Sunday, 10^th May, the walking continued with a march from Loznica to Gornje Nedeljice, the village most directly threatened by the planned lithium mine, whose residents are the backbone of the resistance against this project. As Zlatko Kokanović from the organisation Ne damo Jadar stated during the protest, the plenums of state universities have openly and unequivocally supported the citizens’ fight against the opening of a lithium mine in the municipality of Loznica. The struggle is also backed by almost the entire scientific community in Serbia.

The Alliance of Environmental Organisations of Serbia and other environmental protection organisations have supported the students morally and tactically since the beginning of the student blockades. “What these kids are doing, the students, it’s above all divisions – above religious, national, political. At this moment we are in a struggle to save the state”, Kokanović stated earlier.

How will the EU position itself towards the authorities in Serbia and mining?
A large number of citizens and environmental activists consider the fight against the lithium mining project in Jadar a symbol of the struggle for national political and economic sovereignty. As a reminder, the public is waiting for the publication of the second list of mining projects of strategic importance for the European Union, which could include Rio Tinto’s project in Serbia.

The European Commission published the first list, which includes projects planned on EU territory, on 25^th March. It included 47 projects intended to contribute to green and digital transition, but also to the military industry, in accordance with the provisions of the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). CRMA, as a reminder, has been criticised by international actors in the field of environmental protection due to contradictions in relation to policies ensuring water supply security and food sovereignty, as well as because it deprives local communities of a previously established human rights standard – the right to oppose projects planned in their environment (right to say no).

The President of Serbia stated after the proclamation of the first list that the declaration of the Jadar Project as strategic is expected within 7-8 days. In the meantime, however, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, has repeatedly stated that the EU’s requirements from Serbia in the accession process are identical to the demands of the student movement. Serbia was visited by several European delegations, as well as UN representatives, during April and May, and the European Parliament and Council of Europe adopted documents problematising the current political crisis and repression.

In the past month and a half, as analysts comment, there has been a visible (for now cautious) departure from the EU “policy of reciprocity” within which the authorities in Serbia received only praise for “success on the European path”, regardless of reports from human rights and media freedom organisations, as long as the authorities successfully implemented the policy of “attracting direct foreign investments” (i.e., subsidising foreign companies and tolerating oversights). In this context, there is also speculation about the possibility that the Jadar Project will (for now) not be declared a project of strategic interest for the EU.

“No one will dig. They are trying to tell us ’Rio Tinto is withdrawing, the Chinese will come, better us than them or the Russians’, but no one will dig and the sooner they realise that, the better”, Zlatko Kokanović said at the protest.

I.K.