Conversation is healing, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vuçiq on Instagram, inviting professors and representatives of the University to a meeting. After many months of his regime's top brass openly targeting both teachers and professors, there has now been a turnabout and they are looking for collaborators among them - those who will say that they have reviewed the published documentation regarding the collapsed shelter at the Novi Sad Railway Station and that everything is fine now.

The pressure has been on striking teachers and professors in Serbia for months, supporting the students in the blockade. From the initiation of disciplinary proceedings, to threats of salary cuts or even job loss, we have reached the point where some negotiations and agreements are being sought.

A day after the incredible images that emerged from the protests in Novi Sad, and then in Niš, Vršac and Jagodina, a call for dialogue arrived. This time not to students, but to professors, writes Danas.rs.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vuçiq, posted on Instagram on Sunday and said that conversation is healing and that only through it can a solution be reached, adding that it is important that discussions with professors and university representatives begin as soon as possible and that no one avoids their responsibility. .

On the same day, the principals of the blocked schools received an invitation to a meeting at the Ministry of Education.

It was held yesterday in a conciliatory tone, with the emphasis that there will be no reduction in teachers' salaries if they offer an adequate plan to compensate for lost hours.

Immediately after the end of this meeting, the President of Serbia invited the Rector's Collegium of the University of Belgrade "to discuss solving urgent problems in society."

Referring to the Constitution and Article 111, according to which the president of the state must express state unity with his behavior, Aleksandar Vuçiq wrote:

“If students and professors of higher education institutions are of the opinion that some of the requirements have not been met, or that the requirements have not been fully met, it is necessary, in my opinion, to open a dialogue on this, as well as on all other issues that may be important for overcoming the current situation.” “I am convinced that only within the framework of the dialogue can we jointly determine whether the requirements of the students have been met, to what extent, and specify what activities should be undertaken so that these requirements are met in the expected manner. Vuçiq wrote in the letter and emphasized that the competent institutions are ready to work day and night to fulfill all the students' requests.

Professor Jovo Bakić reacted to the very idea of ​​talking to Vuçiqin and said that the president was not competent for such a thing.

"Who is he to call university professors to talks? "He is not competent," Bakic said, calling on the Serbian president "to surrender as soon as possible."

He also estimated that any opportunity to talk was lost about ten years ago.

"I can't wait to see spineless university professors, if there are any, in talks with him," Bakic noted, while political scientist Mladen Mrdal believes that Vuçiq is doing just that at this moment - "seeking collaborating professors and experts."

"Those who will say they have reviewed the documentation and everything is in order. Vuçiq "will raise their voice in the ears of his supporters in order to maintain trust among them," Mrdalj told N1.

Retired professor Çedomir Çupiç told Nova that this dialogue is impossible without students.

"There is no dialogue with Vuçiq"This is not in his competence, as students and professors have shown so far. What he is calling for dialogue is outside his competence," Čupić emphasizes, adding:

"First, the students' demands must be met, and most importantly, all contracts must be opened and reviewed by a committee that I have heard will be formed at the University. Therefore, Vuçiq is not the address of dialogue. Students demand that institutions function and he does not represent the institutions. Moreover, Vuçiq "With his governance and serious abuses, he destroyed these institutions. Now they must be repaired, so that they are independent of the government."

Regarding the possibility that some professors will still agree to this game and say that the published documentation for the reconstruction of the shelter at the Novi Sad railway station is complete and that the students' demands have been met, Čupić says:

"Universities and faculties are a community of students and professors. A professor who does not accept this is not a professor, but an employee. He may be a scientist, but he is not on a professorial mission. Professors cannot do without students and vice versa. For the first time, we now have a great consensus. Where will the professors go now without the students? It is precisely on the basis of the professors' knowledge that these students embarked on the fight for justice, freedom and truth.