Tara Ćirić
On Friday, November 1st, 2024, a concrete canopy above an outdoor seating area outside of the Novi Sad train station in Serbia collapsed, killing sixteen people. Sitting on the river Danube, Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia. Its railway station had been renovated as a part of the larger Chinese-led upgrade project from Belgrade to Budapest.
Obfuscation, corruption, and intimidation are nothing new in the political life of modern-day Serbia. Against the backdrop of EU ascension, Serbia’s government regularly deals in shady ‘development’ deals, has recently won its lowest score yet on the World Freedom Index, and intimidates citizens and journalists with the gall to speak out. All this had led to a certain malaise in day-to-day life, a ‘we’re fucked but sure what can you do’ sort of attitude that I hear sometimes on my local commute here in Ireland.
President Vučić stated that the concrete awning that collapsed had not been part of these ongoing construction works, which according to his government were up to ‘European standards’. Doubts about the official party line stirred. Grief transformed into rage, and rage transformed into collective, organised, direct action in the streets of Serbia. These protests, the largest protests Serbia has seen since the overthrow of genocidaire Slobodan Milošević in 2000, have been sustained for more than a year.
As the movement grew last winter, I was confused by the lack of coverage in western Europe. There seemed to be no interest; no curiosity surrounding this massive student uprising happening just outside the EU border. So, more than a year after the disaster that sparked the movement, in this article I offer you a peak behind the western media curtain into the student blockades.
A Disaster Born from Corruption
In the days following the Novi Sad station collapse, the story peddled by the Serbian government became less convincing with concerns mounting that public safety had been undermined in favor of corruption and negligence. Just four days after the collapse, the first march saw thousands of people taking to the streets demanding transparency and accountability in Novi Sad. In a move familiar to many Irish citizens, the government offered a sacrificial lamb in the Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesić to quell growing discontentHe offered to resign, while maintaining that he could not accept any blame for any deaths following “the tragedy that happened”. As the movement grew, university students took center stage in the protests.
Student protests are not new in Serbian history. In recent memory, students led the charge for civil liberties under Tito in 1968 and against Milošović’s falsified elections in 1997. The State, in its various forms, has always responded with violence, heightened surveillance, media crackdowns, firing or exiling university professors, and the false imprisonment of students.
As vigils for the dead sprouted across the country, protesting students were attacked in Belgrade by a group of men, including members of the ruling Progressive Party in power since 2012. Five days later, thousands of protestors took to the streets in Novi Sad. Red handprints and spray paint plastered on buildings soon became a marker of the movement. Nine people were arrested on suspicion of violent behavior at a public gathering, destruction of private property, assault of a police officer, or of having caused “general dangers”.
The Movement Grows, History Repeats
By December, students in universities and schools across Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac – Serbia’s largest cities – held vigils, walk-outs and protests. The walkouts soon morphed into blockades of faculties, bringing teaching to a standstill.
As in 1968 and 1997, university and school staff who publicly supported the protestors were fired or pressured to resign. In a rural school where one of my family members works, a large portion of teachers were fired for supporting the movement. At the same time, some in university leadership made their allegiances to Vučić known, threatening action against students and colleagues participating in blockades.
The first win for the protestors came on December 17th, when the government released 195 documents concerning the upgrade to rail infrastructure, including Novi Sad. While Vucic claimed these were ‘all the documents’ related to the disaster, journalists confirmed that prosecuting lawyers in ongoing cases had 857 documents, and page numbers in some files were missing. What was conspicuously missing was any mention of the canopy in month reports. Regardless, Vučić called for students to return to class.
Then, the Union of Belgrade Gymnasiums Employees – representing secondary schools in the area – announced strikes at all but one of 21 schools. By the end of December, protests in Belgrade were bringing in over 100,000 people. Blockades to university faculties in the four big cities continued, with more secondary school pupils joining each day. The students became increasingly organised, meeting in ‘plenums’ to discuss next moves.
- Full publication of all documents related to construction of the Novi Sad train station
- Attackers of students and professors during protests to be identified and prosecuted and dismissed if found to be public officials
- Dismissal of criminal charges against students detained during protests
- A 20% increase in budgets for universities
And above all
- A state governed by the rule of law
The deaths, the students asserted, were not a “tragedy”. It was death by corruption. A slow, suffocating death that all students in Serbia face. In this country, it is not your degree that gets you a job in engineering, in public service, in private companies. It’s who you know, and by default, how much that person who you know, knows (and loves) Vučić.
In March, the Student Blockade called a general strike: “Don’t buy anything, don’t go to work. Join us on the street”. By this point, striking teachers had received docked salaries for their participation, violating labor laws. By mid-March, over 300,000 people walked, drove and cycled across Serbia to come to Belgrade in a mass demonstration, chanting the movement’s slogan ‘Pumpaj!’ (Pump It!), in reference to the blowing of whistles, car horns and airhorns during protests. The government was considering ending the school term early to circumnavigate the blockades.
The Loud Silence of the EU
Serbia remains a potential EU member in waiting, its accession stalled in part due to its poor record on election and media transparency. Following the disaster in Novi Sad and ensuing violence against protestors, the EU remained silent. This is despite students taking direct action aimed towards the EU, such as the 13-day cycle from Serbia to meet with members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Many assumed that the silence was linked to the now-paused $3.7b lithium mine proposed by Vučić government, for which the EU would happily gain vital materials without denting their own environmental caps.
For the EU a Vučić government means a government willing to pillage its own biosphere, make environmental refugees of its own citizens, and allow illegal practices against a fragile aquatic ecosystem without the pesky oversight of EU law. Vučić has played this game well, palling up to Brussels and claiming interest in embodying an open, democratic, EU-member state, while smearing student protestors as either Western or Croatian intelligence agents.
Spring came and went. Salaries of union members involved in protests were cut, educators were fired, media outlets published chat logs of organisers, students were arrested, citizens were expelled or forced into exile in neighboring countries following intimidation and threats. Vučić made the buses in Belgrade free, promised new highways and better housing loans.
And then something changed and the EU began to take notice. Kind of. After I arrived home for the summer, the news started to become inundated with brutal videos of students being beaten bloody on the streets. State violence was more public than ever before. Reports were published of a sonic weapon used to suppress protestors.
The student protestors responded in kind. A previously well-oiled, student-controlled movement tried a new tactic. They decentralized in August, calling on participants to lead for themselves. Protests in the street escalated further, with regime loyalists and police fighting protestors in the streets. By October, EU President Ursula Von Leyen began pushing Vučić for visible “progress” on the rule of law, electoral frameworks, and media freedom in order for Serbia to move forwards with its EU candidacy. She tempered this statement with lukewarm remarks about “all sides” needing to be involved in reforms, while at the same time insisting that the EU stands for freedom and the right to peaceful assembly. Ten days later the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the repression of protestors in Serbia and, typically, followed with no concrete action.
Though the existence of and legitimacy from the EU remains a bargaining chip employed by student protestors, its usefulness remains unclear. Some argue that the EU can help bring democracy to Serbia. But the cost of EU support, one that supports lithium mining and exploitation of natural resources for the sake of oligarchical wealth, could be a sore spot within a movement that continues to be pro-democracy and wary of western money, and with it western meddling. Plans for major investment from Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were recently squashed due to mass protest and legal challenge despite Vučić’s enthusiasm. Rio Tinto has suspended the construction of a lithium mine in Serbia, despite EU approval, due to delays caused by mass protest.
A Question of ‘Legitimacy’
On November 1st, 2025, one year since the disaster in Novi Sad, over ten thousand protestors gathered in the city to mourn the 16 dead. Students in some schools continued to occupy their buildings, demanding the resignation of leaders who fired teachers for supporting the movement. Charges against regime loyalists who attacked protesters throughout the summer have been dropped. On December 24th, the Novi Sad’s High Court dropped charges against Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesić and five others due to ‘insufficient evidence’ of criminal wrongdoing.
In June 1968, after sustained student protests, President Tito gave a televised speech proclaiming that “the students are right” and met some of their demands. However, student protestors Vladimir Mijanović, Milan Nikolić, Pavluško Imširović, Lazar Stojanović and others remained in prison.
In February 1997, President Milošević conceded opposition victory in elections, a prelude to the Bulldozer Revolution of 2000 which led to his arrest and eventual imprisonment in the Hauge. A student protestor, Predrag Starčević, had already been beaten to death at a protest in December of 1996.
For the current student protestors, a new demand for snap elections has caused a rift in the movement. Some protestors have compiled an electoral list, calling for all opposition parties to sit out elections to support student-backed candidates. Other members are wary of potential co-option and dilution of the movement if it were to be subsumed under party politics. Vučić continues to apply pressure to protestors and their allies, hoping to sow enough discontent to avoid facing elections. Regardless of what happens next the Serbians have awakened from their collective apathy and taken matters into their own hands, without international sanction, cooperation, or permission.
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