Protest is an opportunity, organization and leadership deliver victory

By: Saša Janković

Dear Ilir,

Kurti’s victory in Kosovo did not surprise me. When a ruling party captures institutions, media, and fear, elections merely confirm its dominance.

They no longer express the citizens’ will, but the power of an electoral machinery that crushes freedom of choice. You already knew that, it’s just that nobody is entirely objective in their backyard. “So, what do we do now?”, as the lady artist once sung?

I have been quiet in public in recent years. Not because I lacked things to say, but because truth without organization and the readiness to win power is politically harmless.

Criticism as well. The criticized have no reason to change; the system they built serves them well. We won’t solve anything by dealing with them. The problem hides in our persistent refusal to be politically organized – seriously, long-term, and with discipline, so as to gain power to change the ugly reality.

I do not believe in salvation from abroad. Foreign actors pursue their own interests; sometimes these align with ours, often they do not. Sovereignty is not granted, it is built.

Those unwilling to develop the capacity to manage internal and external challenges inevitably depend on others and have no right to complain about them.

Nor do I believe in miracles from within.

Student protests across Serbia are the most valuable political development in years. But protest is an opportunity, not a solution.

Someone must turn it into a political outcome. Without clear political orientation, organization, and serious, accountable leadership, energy dissipates and the system remains intact.

History is unforgiving on this point: the oppressed have prevailed only when rebellion was transformed into political goals, structure, and discipline.

Today, paradoxically, educated and culturally liberal groups are often politically weakest: fragmented, hesitant, trapped in constant critique rather than collective action.

In this brutal reality, decency without results becomes pathetic.

I did not step back from Serbian politics because I was attacked.

I stepped back when I realized that the side I belonged to was not yet prepared to pay the price of victory: a shared political minimum, discipline, internal honesty, and rules that apply not only to opponents.

Reality is not changed by noise or wit, but by the capacity to turn ideas into organization and leadership into trust, so that people recognize in you
a better version of themselves, not the worst instincts now on display.

Without that, “together until victory” and “system change” are just hollow words.

Still, it was seven years ago. Today, the question is no longer who is guilty, but who is capable. There is little value in endlessly explaining what Vučić, or Kurti, are dividing up and destroying. What matters is whom we are able to bring together, and what we are capable of building.

So, is there today, in Pristina, a political force able to turn dissatisfaction into sustainable governance?

Is there, in Belgrade, a force able to turn rebellion into victory – and victory into a responsible state?

If not, such forces will not emerge on their own. They must be built. And the people
we are waiting for are still us – provided we become more organized, and less vain.

Yours sincerely,

Saša Janković