Macut: Students' political demands on defensive, situation to stabilise within months

MT JAHORINA - We have a very clear situation where the political part of the students' demands is on a major defensive, Serbian PM Djuro Macut said on Tuesday, expressing the expectation the situation would stabilise within a few months.

"I think that is where we get the advantage of getting the system back to where it should get back to because, really, we will not achieve what we want without education. Education is the foundation of every society and something that the region needs, too," Macut told a panel at the Jahorina Economic Forum.

He also said he was quite satisfied with the dialogue with representatives of Serbian universities and the academic community and noted that the University of Kragujevac had practically been unblocked while the University of Nis was starting to work to a substantial extent.

Macut said he hoped the blockade of university faculties would come to an end completely and that the academic year would be finished as planned.

He said substantial progress had been made in the dialogue that was not visible to the public as there were no press releases about those discussions.

Speaking about the University of Belgrade, Macut said it was the largest and the "most inert" national university in the country but that there was "full understanding" of the situation and that things could not be expected to change immediately after a months-long stall of the system.

"You cannot unblock it immediately, but the only way to do it is through dialogue," he said.