Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš Natalija Jovanović attacked with a knife: I accuse President Vučić

(Patria) - Today, the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Natalija Jovanović, was attacked in Niš by a woman with a knife. Jovanović ended up in the hospital due to her injuries, both from the wound and from high blood pressure problems that resulted from the stress following the attack.

This aggressive act seems to be the culmination of a discourse of violence that has been coming directly from the top of the ruling structure for years, and especially in recent months.

At the time of the attack, Dean Natalija Jovanović was at a protest in front of the Faculty of Law. As eyewitnesses told N1, an unknown woman first threatened to throw acid on her. People moved the dean into a betting shop, and she then entered an ambulance.

This is not the first time Natalija Jovanović has been attacked. Something similar happened at the beginning of February when an older woman attacked her.

"An older woman first attacked students in front of Južna Morava, and I approached to try to protect them. Some time later, on Bulevar Nemanjića, she physically attacked me as well, got in my face, started cursing and threatening: 'We will kill you' and 'You will pay for everything.' She started looking for something in her bag, but then my colleague, Professor Ivan Jovanović, reacted, pushed her away, as did the student ushers," she said, adding that she went to the Police Administration afterwards, but felt unwell there, after which she was treated at the Clinic for Cardiology.

Verbal and physical attacks have become more frequent in recent weeks. In addition to the violence against the dean, we have also witnessed an attack on students in Novi Sad (the perpetrators have not yet been apprehended), as well as on Professor Dragana Budakov in the same city, who had pyrotechnic devices thrown at her while she was making protest noise from her terrace.

"I experienced great stress; all that's left is for them to cut us to pieces. There is no need for tensions to spread further in this way, and we know who is spreading them. I accuse one person, she pulled a knife on me, and that is the president of this country," Natalija Jovanović stated after leaving the hospital.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has repeatedly accused the dean and her family in the media.

Today's attack is a consequence of an atmosphere in which the authorities have organized, through the media, the creation of a society in which dissenters are insulted, dragged through tabloids, targeted, isolated, and – finally – physically attacked.

"Vučić not only bears responsibility – he is the creator, the architect of such a society. A society in which no one who has the courage to oppose the regime is safe anymore. We should all be aware that this is not the end – this is the beginning of a dangerous spiral of violence into which we will sink further if we do not oppose the organized criminal group that governs Serbia," said Dragan Đilas, president of the Party of Freedom and Justice.