Two months of blockades: How do the “propaganda cookbook” and spins work against students?

Each step of the spin made by the Government, with the help of the propaganda machine, during the two months of student blockades was aimed at discrediting students, questioning their motives for the blockades, stifling all critical voices, and demonizing political opponents. In this mission, high-ranking state officials and media used various manipulation mechanisms. They most often targeted emotions – trying to provoke fear among citizens about the collapse of the state, both internal and external enemies. They also used proven propaganda techniques, one of the most visible being the transfer technique – linking students and their actions with figures or concepts widely disliked by the public.

While claiming that students were using the Croatian “Blockade Cookbook” to “overthrow the state”, a book by Philosophy students from the University of Zagreb on the 2009 blockade and guidelines for organizing student life under such conditions, the Government and media in Serbia showed something else. They demonstrated how a propaganda “cookbook” could look when dealing with students demanding accountability for the deaths of 15 people in a canopy collapse in Novi Sad in early November of 2024.

 

Try to “buy” them

 

Before telling students that their demands were “fulfilled”, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić introduced a program to buy apartments for young people on December 11, 2024. According to the program, as the President stated, the participation fee for a €75,000 apartment would be €2,250. The next day, Vučić lowered the fee to €1,000 via Instagram, and a few days later, to €750. He also discussed subsidizing housing loans, with media outlets reporting “great news for the youth” and headlines like “the first apartment is no longer just a dream”.

“This is my idea, like my child, politically speaking, of course. I gave birth to that idea. I think it’s a salvation for our young people”, said the President in one of his addresses.

However, students did not back down from their demands simply because Vučić offered more affordable housing loans. They said “no”, interpreting it as a message of “take a lollipop, and everything will be okay”, and assessed that the offer was actually “meant for parents who might pressure them” by saying, “Look, this is a great opportunity, stay in the country”.

 

Say you fulfilled the demands, maybe it’ll pass

 

On December 11, as Istinomer previously reported, Vučić also stated that he was “meeting students’ demands”. He showed binders supposedly containing documents about the canopy reconstruction in Novi Sad, emphasized that students arrested during protests had been “released”, and stated that he would “personally make the decision on pardons” if they were convicted. He relayed a Government decision to increase University and faculty material expenditures by 20%, and two days after his speech, several officials resigned, allegedly connected to the attack on students and professors at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts.

Although mainstream media acted as a megaphone for the message that the demands were “fulfilled”, and other Government representatives echoed the same claim, students responded that the demands were not met and that the blockades would continue. They told Vučić that he was not responsible for fulfilling the demands, and turned to the Prosecutor’s Office, noting that the released documentation was “incomplete” and that the resignations of several officials did not imply criminal responsibility for the attack on students.

 

Keep politics for one man only

 

On several occasions, the state leadership and influential media tried to convince the public that the student protests were not students’ own but were “political protests”. Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić emphasized that these “political protests” clearly had “two political demands” – the “violent overthrow of the Government” and the “secession of Vojvodina”.

This was yet another manipulation. By denying that political action means acting in the public interest – holding institutions accountable, insisting on the separation of powers, and upholding the law – Government representatives attempted to give a negative connotation to “political protests” and distance the public from political activity, protests, and civil disobedience when they are dissatisfied with the actions of those in power. In short, they tried to maintain a monopoly on politics.

Students, on the other hand, took the position that the protests and demands were indeed political, but not party-political. The goal, they said, was not political profit for any one option, but rather to “establish the rule of law and institutions that act impartially, legally, and in the public interest”.

 

Link everything to “haters” in the opposition

 

One of the first labels placed on students during the blockades was that they were “Đilas’ supporters”. In an attempt to “prove” that the students didn’t decide to protest on their own but were following the instructions of the President of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, Dragan Đilas, the media spoke about “Đilas’ plan” and “occupation in every sense”. Even the highest-ranking state officials pointed fingers, claiming that student groups were members of political parties. “From Đilas’ party to Ponoš’ party to Aleksić’s party, but it’s all essentially the same. And you can’t say they aren’t political protests when they are political protests”, said Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić, linking students to politicians who were called “tycoons”, “NATO generals”, and “repeaters” in the media. By airing manipulative video segments from Lažomer, these media outlets suggested that students “can’t really boast about being up to the task assigned to them by the NATO opposition”, but that “anti-Serb media” had helped amplify their voices.

 

Be like Sloba (and Mira)

 

Before the start of the student blockades, the narrative that followed the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad was that the protests were “attempts at a colour revolution”. This narrative, in which the Government claimed that protests were externally orchestrated and aimed at destabilizing the state, was actually a rehabilitated version of the 1990s narrative about the opposition and NGOs as “foreign mercenaries”. As a rule, the finger was pointed at Western countries, with Government representatives also mentioning intelligence agencies. These methods are reminiscent of Russian tactics for persecuting opposition politicians, media, and civil society organizations. They also bear a resemblance to the rule of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who used these tactics to suppress democratic voices.

However, it wasn’t all reminiscent of Milošević. When President Vučić called on young people in early December not to “fight or argue over money for the sake of overthrowing the Government”, he sounded like Milošević’s wife, Mira Marković. In her memoirs, reflecting on the 1990s protests, she claimed that back then, students who protested “were given marks, sandwiches, and ecstasy”.

 

Blame the Croats

 

In addition to being associated with long-vilified figures in the opposition and critical public, students were placed alongside artificially created regional enemies, primarily Croats, who are still, with manipulations recalling past war conflicts, attributed only evil intentions toward Serbia. The first reactions of the Government and media to the student blockades included headlines claiming that students in Belgrade were supported by a “Ustasha assembly”.

When students from Zagreb visited their colleagues in Belgrade, tabloids called them “spies” who “were roaming Serbia, organizing protests, and wanted to overthrow the state”. They claimed that “the tentacles of the Croatian intelligence service were all around the protests and blockades”, linking Zagreb students to the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA). Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić “warmly” sent off Croatian students, stating that they would have been “kicked out” if they had come during his student days.

#DaNeVeruješ

Da je student, predsednik bi “najurio” kolege iz Hrvatske 🤯 pic.twitter.com/LHArExQYHs

— #dasenelazemo (@istinomer) December 31, 2024

 

Blame the Croats – Part 2

 

The spin about Croatia’s involvement in the current protests continued when Novosti published Croatian passports of two students, claiming that this was “yet another confirmation of the strong Croatian influence in attempts to destabilize Serbia”. Besides being another manipulation aimed at discrediting the student protests, this article included violations of the Constitution, laws, and the Serbian Journalists’ Code. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia prohibits the “unauthorized use of personal data outside the purpose for which it was collected”, and in addition to the highest legal act, personal data protection is also regulated by the law. Moreover, the Criminal Code stipulates that a criminal offense is committed by anyone who “illegally acquires, discloses, or otherwise uses data for a purpose other than intended”. The “exclusive scoop” by Novosti was picked up by other websites, which used it to further target students, stir up hatred, and intimidate with claims of “foreign attacks on Serbia”.

 

Mention Kurti if you want

 

In early January, media outlets reported that Prime Minister Miloš Vučević stated that when Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti supports someone in Serbia, “every decent and honorable person should be on the other side”. Vučević reportedly made this comment in reaction to Kurti’s statements to Croatian media about the student protests in Belgrade. With this statement, the Serbian Prime Minister placed students on one side and Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti, the “eternal enemy” in Serbian public opinion, on the other side, while positioning all “decent and honorable” people on his side. A month earlier, as Istinomer had already written, the media had questioned whether Albin Kurti “was using Serbian universities for his hybrid attacks on Serbia”.

 

Reduce the number if it makes you feel better

 

“An overwhelming majority of students” are against the blockades and “usurpers” in their faculties, and just want to continue studying, according to Government representatives in those media outlets where the scale of student rebellion is not easily known. By placing a façade in front of data about the magnitude and claims that a minority is blocking faculties and preventing classes from taking place, the Government, and especially national television stations, embarked on minimizing, or delegitimizing the protests. Narratives about the “majority” of students opposing the blockades were amplified on national TV by representatives of the Serbian University Students’ Conference (SKONUS), an organization that was also mentioned when students distanced themselves from its views and expressed a lack of trust in it.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Istinomer (@istinomer)

 

Try to confuse

 

After claiming that all student demands were met, the Government moved on to the spin that it wasn’t clear what the students’ demands were. President Vučić used this spin as early as late 2024, when he appeared on RTS and said that students were using the Croatian “Blockade Cookbook” as a blueprint for their protests.

“Students aren’t saying anything. That’s the power of it all. They learn how to do it. It’s written in that ‘Blockade Cookbook’ from Croatia. Exactly. Full depersonalization. You don’t say anything, demands are broad enough for anyone to interpret as they wish, and no one knows what they are”, said President Vučić, along with other Government representatives and analysts in appearances on national television.

However, students did not change their demands, but rather made them more specific – they precisely defined what constitutes the release of complete documentation on the canopy reconstruction, the prosecution of those who physically attacked students and professors, halting the persecution of students, and increasing the education budget.

 

Shift the focus to one man (Introduce a referendum)

 

Following CRTA’s latest public opinion survey, which showed that 61% of Serbian citizens supported the protests and student blockades, the Government responded with another spin. President Vučić, Parliament Speaker Brnabić, mainstream media, and “analysts” all tried to divert attention from that data, using information suggesting that more than half of citizens would not support the President in an advisory referendum on his dismissal. Calls from the top started urging the need to check “the will of the people” and to “resolve the crisis” caused, as the President said, by opposition parties with their “immoral abuses of tragedy”. The Open Parliament assessed that “we are witnessing a new intention by the Government to implement political engineering of laws and the Constitution”, claiming that the referendum on the President’s dismissal was “unconstitutional and illegal”.

❗Referendum je SPIN❗

Savetodavni referendum o razrešenju predsednika Srbije novi je pokušaj vlasti da skrene pažnju sa studentskih blokada i protesta.

I potisne podatak iz istraživanja @CRTArs da 61 odsto građana Srbije podržava proteste i studentske blokade.
👇🏻🧵 pic.twitter.com/l3YVcVVwCb

— #dasenelazemo (@istinomer) January 15, 2025

In this spin, government representatives manipulated facts, targeted specific groups, and spread falsehoods. The spotlight was once again directed at President Vučić, and messages of the trust he enjoys among voters were meant to overshadow the images of protests across Serbia, as well as the demands, blockades, and the support and trust citizens gave to students. It didn’t work. Within just a few days, the story about the advisory referendum quieted down, and it came down to Vučić “throwing down the gauntlet to the cowards afraid of the will of the people”.

 

Play the victim card

 

The demonization of students and citizens supporting them in protests entered a new phase with Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić’s statement that “the essence of the students’ protest program in front of RTS is to kill President Aleksandar Vučić”. Brnabić concluded this based on a quote from a film (“He was a tall man”) used by one of the protestors in an interview with TV N1. In order to divert attention from the clear and unfulfilled demands of the student blockades and protests – namely, their goal of having institutions “do their job according to the law and in the interest of all citizens” – manipulation amplified incendiary rhetoric. The Parliament Speaker attributed to all protest participants the intention to “kill” the President and portrayed them in a negative, even criminal light.

 

Recycling old spins for image washing (and bring the movement back)

 

From the old spin vault came the “broad people’s” movement. President Vučić had announced the formation of the National Movement for the State as early as 2023, talking about gathering “all who want normality, who want a decent Serbia”. Among them, he saw “many nonpartisan personalities”, just as he mentioned in recent days the inclusion of “good and hardworking people who, for various reasons, have been marginalized or not engaged in politics”. The first event in the process of forming this new, nonpartisan movement, a gathering in Jagodina, was announced by the media as “a gathering of smart and normal people”, specifically actors, directors, athletes, singers – “a new force” which is “writing history”. This parallel reality was being built while some other professors, actors, athletes, and singers were supporting students in their blockades and calling for protests. Meanwhile, the “new force” and, essentially, the new image were being constructed while citizens, through various actions, were sending the message to SNS officials: “Your hands are stained with blood”.

“The honeymoon is over”

At a session of the Education, Science, Technological Development, and Information Society Committee, Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić stated that “the honeymoon is over” and that continuing the blockades would bring along certain threats.

Brnabić clarified, as reported by Danas, that the danger was that more than 100,000 students could lose the right to study on state scholarships, and more than 17,000 could lose access to student dormitories. Among other consequences, she mentioned that self-financing students and their families might face additional costs. Additionally, Brnabić pointed out that students receiving state loans would be obligated to repay them in such circumstances.

 

If nothing works, the Cobras and loyalists could work

 

Throughout the past weeks of spins, there were also intimidations and threats.

On December 20, President Vučić spoke on TV Happy’s “Ćirilica” program about how he could have “brought out the Cobras” and “cracked down on” all the students who gathered in front of the Office of the President that month.

“My reaction? Should I have gone out to insult them, to fight with them, to bring out the Cobras and crack down on them all? It wouldn’t have taken six or seven seconds. No one even thought of it. I showed respect for them, fulfilled the demands they set, and said ‘you’re welcome’”, said President Vučić.

On the last day of 2024, Vučić, in his 354th TV performance for the year, spoke about the “loyalists” – a faction within SNS who are “loyally devoted” to the party. He explained that there were about 17,000 men who were “pro-Russian” and “somewhat extreme”.

“Today, they had their gathering, first at a small church; it’s their custom. I’m not part of that team, and I’ve always thought it was an exaggeration, but they are very close to me… These are mostly men, only a few women; they even swore by blood there – never with the yellow trash and the likes of them”, said Vučić on December 31, adding in the same appearance, “they are strongly against those who today want to carry out a colour revolution and are ready to fight”.

Those accused of carrying out a “colour revolution” received another message in recent days. Amid a series of spins and propaganda attacks, many graffiti (a red fist and a stretched-out middle finger), social media posts, and banners with the same symbols appeared, accompanied by the message: “The response of the Serbian people to the attempt of a colour revolution”. Whoever decided to speak on behalf of “the Serbian people” did not sign their name clearly, but the same fist with the extended middle finger appeared on the social media pages of some ruling party members.