Two rows of tractors and double fences protect Pioneer Park in Belgrade, where “students who want to learn” reside. Between the barricades, citizens and students participating in the blockade today urged them to leave the park and join a large protest scheduled for tomorrow.

The Pioneer Park is under the watch of guards and police, and media access has been restricted. Campers from the group “students who want to learn” declined to speak with a “Vijesti” reporter. Most individuals staying within the enclosed park, situated opposite the Serbian Parliament, were inside their tents today, sheltered by tarpaulins and other coverings.

Several hundred citizens and fellow students in the blockade observed them from the fence, calling for conversation and demanding that they exit the park to participate in the “liberation of Serbia.”

They also communicated with the police officers securing the park, urging them to allow entry and dismantle the fences, which they were not permitted to do.

“Students who want to learn” stated today that they have no plans to vacate the park tomorrow, coinciding with a protest gathering announced for various locations in Belgrade in front of the Serbian parliament.

As citizens outside the fence informed “Vijesti,” they gathered to witness and document the participants of this project, which they assert was organized by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

They branded those staying in the park as traitors, mercenaries, and “sandwich people,” urging them to reconsider their stance and align themselves with the right side of history.

Andrijana Milojević mentioned that she stopped on her way to the city upon seeing tractors guarding the so-called “Ćaciland,” a nickname given by both the students in the blockade and their supporters.

“I don’t even know what to make of this anymore. We wanted to see exactly what these people look like and understand what this gathering really means. The image is quite disheartening when you take a closer look,” she expressed.

A friend of hers, who wished to remain anonymous, commented on the sad reality that the few young people present behind the fences were accompanied by many who appeared to be socially marginalized.

Nenad Anufrijev conveyed to “Vijesti” that what they are witnessing at Pioneer Park is an almost surreal sight.

“If these are students, then I must still be in my doctoral studies,” he replied succinctly when asked if he recognized any former colleagues among those in the camp.

Anufrijev asserted that not only he but “all sensible young people” intend to join the protest in Belgrade tomorrow, inviting everyone to participate. He is eager to see if those citizens behind the fence will change their minds once they witness the crowds of people around them tomorrow at 16:00.

Several gathered citizens expressed their desire for the so-called “students who want to learn” to leave Pioneer Park, allowing “free Serbia” to showcase its strength tomorrow.

The temporary residents of Pioneer Park seemed disinterested in engaging in dialogue or allowing photography or filming. They spent their time sitting on benches, inside their tents, and among them. Later today, the gendarmerie heightened their security presence.

Citizens congregated on the opposite side of the fence protested vocally, live-streaming on social media and capturing as many images of those behind the tents as possible. They declared the end was near for the SNS and “Pink,” referencing the media outlet of the same name. Some young men outside the fence even punctured the tires of some tractors that were guarding the park.

“Faculties to students” and “Plenum down” were among the banners displayed in the park, while the fences bore contrasting messages – “Everyone to the streets” and “Don’t put your hands up, corruption bites.” The chant “pump up,” associated with the student protests, echoed several times.

Students in the blockade, who have been shutting down faculties and universities across Serbia for months, have planned one of the largest protests yet for tomorrow. Colleagues from various cities in Serbia are making their way to Belgrade on foot to offer their support, and Belgrade students are welcoming them tonight at Terazije.

The camp, referred to as “Ćaciland” and officially marked on Google Maps, was named after a phrase spray-painted at the entrance of the “Jovan Jovanović Zmaj” High School in Novi Sad at the start of the second semester – “Ćaci u škola.”

Afterward, the students in the blockade and their supporters labeled all sympathizers, supporters, and members of the SNS and the current government as “cacks.”

Most universities in Serbia are currently blocked, and students are demanding accountability for the deaths of 15 individuals in the collapse of a canopy at the renovated railway station in Novi Sad, along with the release of complete documentation related to the incident.

They have organized a protest in front of the National Assembly in Belgrade for tomorrow at 16:00, where demonstrators will converge from four different locations – Autokomanda, New Belgrade, Republic Square, and King Aleksandar Boulevard.

Vučić and other SNS officials have previously claimed that tomorrow’s protesters in Serbia seek to instigate a coup d’état.

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