Victory Day

Very happy with how Tuesday’s rally in Republic Square turned out - a beautiful spring day and lots of progressive and positive thinking. Although organized by political parties and against the current government, I really did not perceive it as primarily a political event, but as support for a certain set of values symbolized by Europe Day - the day of victory against fascism.

With rising conservativism and an unwillingness to confront our own horrible recent history holding the country back, many of the values which form the backbone of a modern civil European identity are in today’s Serbia under stress or in danger, and it was encouraging to see so many people coming out to support them. I was thrilled to see rainbow flags fluttering freely in the center of Belgrade. And though it was not a huge, revolution-starting, parliament-storming army of people, it was a good start. Perhaps we don’t need revolutions any more. We need evolution. Belgrade is a tough crowd to motivate, people are tired and skeptical after too many years of gathering in the streets. I would like to believe this was the start of creation of a unified Serbian civil society which will eventually take center stage and turn this country into what it could and should be.

Pictures from the internet – forgot my camera