Political scientist and analyst Boban Stojanović has strongly condemned the recent mass deportation of 87 Serbian citizens from Montenegro’s Tivat airport as a “massive stupidity and a colossal diplomatic scandal.”
Speaking on the Albatros News podcast on Monday, June 8, 2026, Stojanović argued that the dramatic security sweep ahead of the EU-Western Balkans summit was not an act of genuine diplomacy, but rather a “juvenile circus” triggered by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s profound domestic paranoia over an explosive, student-led opposition movement at home.
“Sending Thugs” to Fabricate Popular Support
The incident unfolded just prior to the arrival of President Vučić and top European leaders in Tivat, when Montenegrin border authorities turned away a commercial flight from Belgrade and immediately repatriated nearly a hundred Serbian nationals under the guise of summit security.
According to Stojanović, these individuals were not ordinary travelers, but state-sponsored loyalists deployed by Belgrade to stage artificial rallies of adoration for Vučić on foreign soil—mirroring a previous pro-government gathering organized by the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kumanovo, North Macedonia.
“This isn’t diplomacy, and it isn’t politics—it’s a circus or some kind of teenage sickness,” Stojanović remarked. “It’s done just to show that you are ‘loved’ in Podgorica, Tivat, or anywhere else. I don’t know if it’s a fear that a banner reading ‘Students Win’ will pop up, so the President decided to send his thugs.”
Stojanović alleged that this same group of state-backed provocateurs had previously traveled to Riga for the European Basketball Championship, where they allegedly harassed citizens and suppressed authentic crowd chanting to artificially hoist banners reading “Serbia Wins.”
The Turning Point: 400 Days of Electoral Fear
The analyst asserted that Vučić has entered a “vicious cycle of catastrophic political blunders” because he is no longer rational enough to adapt to Serbia’s rapidly changing domestic landscape. Stojanović revealed that Vučić had intended to hold a snap general election by early 2025—a strategy signaled by the tactical resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vučević in January 2025—hoping to consolidate power much like he did following the tragic Ribnikar school shooting.
However, those plans were permanently shattered by a historic shift in Serbian public opinion:
[The Shift in Serbian Political Dynamics: 2024–2026]
• Dec 2024: Vučić prepares snap elections to freeze out a fragmented opposition.
• Jan 2025: PM Miloš Vučević resigns; state mechanism prepares for a spring vote.
• Jan 29, 2025: Massive student walks erupt across Serbia, shifting public opinion.
• Mid-2025: Internal polling shows the ruling SNS party can no longer guarantee victory.
• June 2026: Approaching 400 days without an election—a historic freeze for Vučić.
“He received internal polling showing that he simply cannot win,” Stojanović explained. “He then chose Đura Macura [as a tactical distraction]. We are now approaching nearly 400 days where a man who has called extraordinary elections five times in his career is suddenly terrified of heading to the ballot box.”
The Binary Choice: Vučić vs. The Student Movement
Stojanović clarified that while Vučić’s core ratings haven’t suffered a catastrophic vertical collapse in absolute numbers, the “enormous, unprecedented growth” of the opposition—visible through recent local elections—has completely altered the political mathematical landscape.
In fact, Stojanović argues that traditional political parties on both sides of the aisle have been rendered completely obsolete by the youth movement.
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ THE SERBIAN POLITICAL ARENA │
└───────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌────────────────────────┴────────────────────────┐
▼ ▼
┌────────────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ Aleksandar Vučić │ │ The Student Movement │
│ (Personalized Power Axis) │ │ (Values: Justice & Freedom) │
└────────────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────────────┘
[Irrelevant: SNS, SPS Bureaucracy] [Irrelevant: Traditional Opposition]
“With the emergence of the student movement, everyone else has become completely irrelevant—including the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS),” Stojanović argued. “There are only two political actors left in this country: Vučić as an individual, and the student movement.”
Moving Beyond “Anti-Vučić” Voting to Universal Values
For the first time in modern Serbian political history, citizens are no longer just voting defensively or casting ballots purely out of spite against the regime. Stojanović believes a psychological shift will drive voters toward the student bloc due to a desire to back an actual alternative rooted in universal values: justice, freedom, decentralization, equality, and tolerance.
“Nobody can look a voter in the eye and say they are against justice or freedom,” Stojanović concluded. “It is completely different from casting an opposition vote in previous years just because you hate Vučić. This movement has awakened an authentic, tangible hope that things can genuinely get better.”
