Stanić: I expect political engagement to change the system, not just replace people in office

Actor Tihomir Stanić, a candidate on the „Students Are Winning“  list ("Studenti pobeđuju"), said he expects his political engagement to bring about a change in the system, rather than simply replacing the people holding public office.

Speaking on the morning programme Budilnik on Television E, Stanić said the campaign had begun with optimism and the expectation that it could lead to a government in which decisions would be made in accordance with the Constitution, the law and, as he put it, moral principles.

Speaking about the fact that there are no students among the candidates on the student list, Stanić said this had been the movement’s concept from the outset, although the Serbian authorities have used this fact as one of their main criticisms of the list.

Stanić said he had been nominated by several faculties and that he would support the student movement even if he himself were not among its candidates.

- If we had known how to do things differently, we would not have allowed society to reach this state, nor would we have allowed this kind of autocratic and arbitrary rule - Stanić said.

According to him, the candidates did not nominate themselves but were put forward by faculties.

- There are 250 of us on the list, and nobody pushed their way onto it. The faculties proposed several candidates and alternates, examined our biographies and assessed our moral character - Stanić said.

He argued that the way the student list was formed differs from the party model, in which, as he put it, the party leadership largely decides the order of candidates.

- The fact that I am eighth on the list does not mean that I am more valuable than someone who is 153rd. That is the order determined by the faculties - Stanić said.

Commenting on the term „blockaders“, which the Serbian authorities use to refer to students and their supporters, Stanić argued that, on the contrary, it was the authorities’ actions that had led to the blocking of normal life in the country.

He also believes that Serbia’s key problem lies not only with the individuals in power, but with the way the political system and the National Assembly function.

- The Assembly has been rendered meaningless because it has been filled with people selected according to party quotas and party lines, who, on important issues, voted as they were told, without thinking for themselves - Stanić said.

According to him, the goal of the student movement should be to establish a system in which MPs would discuss and make decisions independently, based on the law, the Constitution and their own responsibility.