Serbian Student Protests Continue to Gain More and More Momentum

What began as student-led protests could lead to large-scale changes in Serbia. In November 2024, a concrete canopy outside the city of Novi Sad’s railway station collapsed, killing 15 people. The tragedy has sparked a wave of student-led protests to demand more government accountability and less corruption and has resulted in “the biggest protest movement in Serbia in years.”

These protests started as 15-minute road blockades to honor the 15 lives lost in the collapse and spread from Novi Sad across the country. The blockades turned into occupations of public university buildings as a result of attacks on the vigils and the lack of response from authorities. On January 28th, students in Belgrade organized a 24-hour occupation of a central intersection that was copied in other major Serbian cities. 

There was a solidarity created not only among the students leading and attending these protests but also with community members across Serbia, signaling a greater desire for government accountability. 61% of Serbians support the blockades and protests and tens of thousands of people gathered in over 200 towns and cities over the past three months to protest. Community members provided students with meals, hundreds of taxi drivers gathered to drive students from Novi Sad to Belgrade, and citizens of Kragujevac opened their homes to around 700 students who came into town to protest. Citizens across Serbian society joined the students in attempts to demand more from their government.

While the protests started as targeting the potential corruption in construction contracts and transparency about how the collapse occurred, it has evolved into a demand for greater government accountability and political change. As the protests have continued on for months, some concessions have been made by the Serbian government to satisfy protesters without fully giving into their demands. Serbian President Vučić has stated that he has met the demands of the students (publication of documents, justice, dismissal of charges for those arrested, and greater funding for higher education), but the protests are still ongoing. In reality, the government has only declassified a handful of documents related to the collapse and the independence of the recent investigation has been called into question, further fueling the protesters’ cause. In January, in addition to the resignation of Novi Sad mayor Đurić, Prime Minister Vučević became the highest-ranking government official to resign as a result of the protests. However, the protesters do not see these attempts by the government as meaningful change. They want to see prosecutions, not false attempts at reform.

Mass protests in Serbia have not been uncommon in recent years. Until this recent wave of protests across the country, the Serbian government has been able to quiet previous demonstrations by framing their issues as isolated to certain groups or populations or painting protesters negatively, which has limited participation in previous protests. However, this strategy has no longer worked with this recent movement. The protesters’ demands for truth and accountability are widely felt across Serbian society and these protests have gained mass following as a result. Despite attempts by the government to suppress the protesters, such as through random arrests and accusations that student protesters are working with foreign intelligence agencies, they have only mobilized more people from across Serbian society. The demonstrations have grown into the largest protest movements in the country since the fall of former Serbian president Milošević in 2000 and some have even considered it Europe’s largest student-led movement since 1968.

Perhaps even more remarkable, these protests demanding transparency and garnering popular support are a unique phenomenon in the backdrop of a global shift towards the right seen in places like the United States and Germany. Within Serbia, they are posing a real threat to Vučić and his government’s rule and may also, in time, have a substantial impact on Serbia's governance moving forward.