Thousands of Zenica residents at protest march demand reactions from all levels of government

(Patria) - Dissatisfied with the current situation, several thousand citizens of Zenica took to the streets in protest. Angered by high food prices, high contributions, and numerous local issues, they expect a reaction from all levels of government.

“Zeničani na ulice” (Zenica Residents on the Streets) is the name of the protest and peaceful protest march. The organizers are an informal group of citizens, dissatisfied, as they pointed out, with corruption, the socio-economic situation, inflation, high prices, peer violence, the status of pensioners, and numerous other issues. It was all initiated by the Facebook group “Zenica Ustaje” (Zenica Rises).

Almedina Dautbegović, one of the Zenica citizens who joined this movement, spoke to FTV’s Dnevnik 1. She believes this could be the beginning of a collective awakening of citizens’ consciousness.

“Look at how many people came. I am very proud of my fellow citizens, first and foremost my fellow Zenica residents, and I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to come to the protest. This shows that we are obviously not doing as well as they like to tell us,” she stated.

The goal of the protest is to send multiple demands to the authorities at all levels of government, where various parties are present, so no one can accuse the organizers of politicking, Dautbegović emphasized.

“The demands range from our social categories, our pensioners, who are hardest hit by these price increases, to high taxes, inflationary policies, because we have no anti-inflationary policies currently being adopted, all the way to our local problems, such as the heating issue, which needs to be addressed more transparently, because we have been suffering from cold apartments in the winter months for decades,” Dautbegović stated.

She also pointed out that the only way things can be changed through democratic means are elections and protests, where, as she noted, we will force those we elected to work between elections.

“I believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina still has a long way to go in developing its democratic mentality, and this is also a path towards that,” Dautbegović concluded.