The Ongoing Student Protests in Serbia: An Overview

Filip Ljubicic

12/28/20246 min leggere

On the 11th of December, a group of Serbian students from Padua met to support their fellow students back in Serbia. They bought food which they will take to universities under blockade in Serbian cities, and banners to show solidarity and shared thoughts on happenings in Serbian cities. Then, on the 17th of December, another group of Serbian students met at the steps of Basilica di Santa Maria Della Salute, in Venice.

What was the reason for their gatherings? On the 1st of November, 2024, at exactly 11.52 in the morning, a canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad, one of Serbia's biggest cities, collapsed and killed fourteen people, with the fifteenth victim giving away to injuries a couple of days later. That same day, as well as the next, several newspaper agencies started changing the news titles published in the past 18 months, titles of articles that regard the renovation of the whole Novi Sad railway station. Yet, in the following hours and days, members of the president's cabinet and the ruling party, as well as the president himself, made comments through which they blamed the former Yugoslav authorities and architects who worked on the station sixty years ago, for the lack of effort and security they put in the building of the railway station in 1964. The pictures and videos, bombastic news titles, and showing around at the beginning of 2023, that celebrated the “Newly reconstructed canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad”, suddenly ceased existing. The fascinating amount of 60 million euros that has been invested in the reconstruction has also stopped being a show-boosting topic at the government top. It's like that grandiose news and infrastructural festival has never happened.

A mix of shock, pain, and terror struck both the people in Serbia, as well as all Serbian citizens living abroad. The regime's inadequate reaction to the happenings in Novi Sad triggered a reaction that is slowly, but surely, turned into revolutionary action that has not been seen in Serbia for decades. In the days following the incident, several government officials were arrested, but released soon after, because of the lack of evidence against them. The Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić, one of the arrested officials, was suspected of opening the station even though it did not have a license for operation. The building was opened and put in use despite certain works on it were still in progress, and no official informed the Republic Building Inspection of this. He resigned from his position as a minister and disappeared from the public eye. Now he walks freely, “cleared” of all accusations.

President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić is known for a lot of things; for some because of his corrupt government, high inflation and low salaries, alleged election theft, and lack of a just and independent bureaucracy and judicial system, and for others because of the personality cult he created, through which he gathered massive support, using corrupt media and national television. Retired, older people who do not have access to the internet or the non-governmental media, regard him as a national hero, and fall under the nationalistic propaganda that's spread on those platforms. Using the strong personality cult, Aleksandar Vučić, along with other members of his party, enjoys one-sided immunity, as his acts often break the Serbian constitution, according to which, for example, he cannot preside in the Parliament, which he often does. He rejected the accusations that the canopy fell because of corruption and lack of effort.

Accusations regarding corruption seem more than likely, especially with the new report from "Transparency International", which puts Serbia in 104th place, out of 180 countries, for corruption, the worst result the country had in the last 12 years. He has a long and controversial political history. In 1998 he became the Minister of Information, in the government of Slobodan Milošević, as a member of the Radical Party of Serbia. His leadership of the cabinet has been plagued by a severe downfall of an already censored and oppressed media. In 2008, he broke away from his party, and alongside other politicians, founded SNS (Serbian Progressive Party). From 2014 to 2017 he served as the Prime Minister, and from 2017 to today he serves as the President of Serbia. His political reign has been followed by many disputed elections, whose outcomes have always been questioned by both the opposition and the European Union, demonstrations, protests, and boycotts, the biggest ones being in the summer of 2020, after the parliamentary elections themselves, when the Parliament wanted to prolong the quarantine, and in 2023, after the mass shooting in a Belgrade school, once again because of the government's inadequate reaction, and summer of 2024, when hundreds of thousands of people boycotted in the streets the mining of lithium by the Canadian company Rio Tinto, infamous for its lack of respect and thought for environment.

In the past month, more than 50 faculties across Serbia have been blocked by their students and, in some cases, professors as well. In Belgrade, the country’s capital, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, and Niš, all of the state universities have been blocked, with lectures and exams moved to an indefinite date. The universities have been joined in the blockades by high schools as well, with pupils supporting university students. Blockades have been induced, as above-mentioned, by the government's reaction to the fall of the canopy and the beatings that befallen the protesting students on the 22nd of November, in front of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. The people who conducted the attack were at once identified, but still await arrest, as the indictment against them was raised only recently, under the influence of the citizens and students. After that day, videos of violence, insulting, threats, and other by-law punishable deeds, have found their way to the internet and the news and press not controlled by the Aleksandar Vučić regime.

All attacks on protesting students and citizens have been committed by the people whose names can be found as registered members of the ruling party. Serbian authorities are slow in reaction, despite the material evidence against the perpetrators. Students who have blocked their respective universities have made a list of requests: prosecution of those who attacked the students, freeing those who were unlawfully jailed, publicizing the papers regarding the reconstruction of the fallen canopy, and increasing the budget for all state universities by 20%. Serbian students of Padua and Venice support these requests, as they show the will of the younger generation to fight against the corrupt government and the lack of reaction and respect it showed in light of recent events. Leaving the universities only for fifteen minutes, paying homage to the fifteen dead people, at exactly 11.52, students gather in the streets of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Niš, and other cities. They were, despite the calm nature of the homage, attacked by other individuals; got insulted and threatened, trampled and run over.

As they blocked the streets, attackers drove into them, and these incidents have even ended with people being driven around on the hood of the cars. Tensions in the country are escalating, as high schoolers who joined the blockades are being attacked as well, despite the fact they are underage. It is not clear whether all of the attackers are registered members of the ruling party, but proof for that suspicion has been found for some of them. It seems that no one can protect the students, as well as other citizens who stand with them.

On the evening of the 11th of December, 41 days since the death of fourteen people, and two weeks since students started their blockades and peaceful protests, President Aleksandar Vučić appeared before the media to address all the little fires that are burning across his country. He stated that all of the student requests have been fulfilled, promising the requested increase in budget and publication of documents. Since then it has been proven that the documentation is not complete, by a part of the investigation conducted by professors and students, as more than three times of documentation is kept with the state prosecutor. Students and citizens have asked another question: how is it possible that the President himself is the one handing out documents that are part of the ongoing investigations, and not the court? Another question that has met a wall of silence at the government's top. “All of the arrested students and activists were released”, he concluded, ignoring the request which demands prosecution of those who physically assaulted students, and police officers who made unlawful arrests.

Serbian students and citizens continue with their fight, refusing to break the blockades of universities, as they claim that the requests have not been fulfilled. They demand justice and political, criminal, and human responsibility. They continue to protest and walk under their paroles, with the most notable ones being: “Your hands are bloody” and “There wouldn't be this blood if everything was under the law”. Attacks and threats also continue, with government-owned media spreading propaganda on national television, lying about the number of those who are protesting, and pushing the narrative that the students are paid to block universities.

The regime of Aleksandar Vučić, the corruption, propaganda, and criminal it has been built upon, cannot prevail much longer, many wish for, while others are not being able to find such hope. Serbian students in the diaspora stand with their colleagues back home, supporting their efforts and requests in the struggle that shows how beatings and illegal arrests cannot stop young, intellective people who are willing to fight for democracy and plain respect for human rights.