More than a decade ago, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told an interviewer in Belgrade that Serbia was “a country where the future happens first”. The phrase circulated widely on Serbian social media in the weeks before Sunday’s election, but in a way that could not have seemed possible 10 years ago.(这句话在周日选举前的几周里在塞尔维亚社交媒体上广泛流传，但传播的方式在十年前看来根本不可能。) Who would then have imagined that Serbia today could be at the forefront of(处于……的最前沿) global democratic change?
十多年前，维基解密创始人朱利安·阿桑奇在贝尔格莱德接受采访时说，塞尔维亚是“未来最先发生的地方”。在周日选举前的几周里，这句话在塞尔维亚社交媒体上广泛流传，但传播的方式在十年前看来根本不可能。那时谁会想到，今天的塞尔维亚竟能站在全球民主变革的最前沿？
The images from Belgrade on Sunday night – people dancing and crying in the streets, while in Novi Sad, the city that sparked the student movement, a flag bearing the image of the convicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj, which had hung from a building since the 1990s, was torn down – reinforced the feeling that the future had truly arrived.(周日晚上贝尔格莱德的画面——人们在街头跳舞、哭泣；而在新萨德，那面印有被定罪战犯舍舍利头像、自90年代起就挂在楼上的旗帜被扯下——强化了未来真的到来的感觉。)
周日晚上贝尔格莱德的画面——人们在街头跳舞、哭泣；而在点燃学生运动之火的新萨德，一面印有被定罪的战犯沃伊斯拉夫·舍舍利头像的旗帜，自上世纪90年代以来一直挂在一栋建筑上，如今被扯了下来——这些画面强化了那种感觉：未来真的到来了。
Watching my home country from abroad, I found it hard not to share in(分享；共同感受) the excitement and emotion. I became involved with the student movement behind this electoral earthquake(选举地震；选举巨变) and was an election candidate for it, for about six months before moving abroad. My involvement began while lecturing in Belgrade at the university’s blockaded(被封锁的) faculties in 2024 and 2025. During these extraordinary blockades, something happened that was not widely discussed in the western media: the emergence of a collective sharing of intelligence and a process of shaping opinion that would become key to Sunday’s outcome.(在这些非同寻常的封锁中，发生了一件西方媒体没有广泛讨论的事：一种集体智慧的共享，以及一个塑造舆论的过程，而后者将成为周日结果的关键。)
身在国外看着自己的祖国，我很难不分享那份激动与情感。我参与了这场选举地震背后的学生运动，并在移居国外前的大约六个月里担任其选举候选人。我的参与始于2024年和2025年在贝尔格莱德被封锁的大学院系里授课期间。在这些非同寻常的封锁中，发生了一件西方媒体没有广泛讨论的事：一种集体智慧的共享，以及一个塑造舆论的过程，而后者将成为周日结果的关键。