After nearly three months of anti-corruption protests in Serbia, Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned on January 28. The protests — Serbia’s largest since 2000, when mass demonstrations brought down Slobodan Milošević’s regime — were triggered by the collapse of a recently reconstructed canopy at the Novi Sad train station on November 1, 2024, which killed 15 people. 

However, they come in a wider context of dissatisfaction with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has consolidated its control over Serbian politics since coming to power in 2012. At the center of the current protests is particularly strong anger against corruption. 

In the days after the collapse, students from Novi Sad began blocking faculties and organizing protests, demanding that authorities take responsibility for the collapse and pervasive corruption they see as being responsible. Protests featured banners with phrases like “Corruption Kills” and “Your Hands Are Bloodied.” Additionally, the “Zastani Srbijo” — “Stop, Serbia” — campaign was launched in cities across Serbia. On November 15, 2024, the campaign coordinated 15-minute traffic blockades at 11:52 a.m., the exact time the canopy collapsed, to honor the victims. 

Very soon after, many university students across Serbia joined; today, the protests have grown in number and expanded across cities in Serbia. 

Broadly speaking, the government’s response has been to delegitimize the students and their demands, and violent attacks on protestors have been frequent. One of the most recent, in which two students in Novi Sad were attacked by men carrying baseball bats who emerged from the city’s SNS headquarters, prompted Vučević’s resignation. 

While President Aleksandar Vučić seems to have hoped that the students’ defiance would subside during the Christmas and New Year holidays, this did not occur. Farmers, actors and lawyers have joined the protests, while many primary and secondary schools announced work stoppages. 

One of the students’ demands, the full list of which was published on Instagram on December 1, 2024, is the release of all documents related to the Novi Sad station reconstruction and canopy collapse. In light of the many attacks protestors have faced, the list also includes the identification and prosecution of those who attacked protesters. Additional demands include releasing detained activists and ending legal proceedings against them, as well as increased funding for universities. Serbia spends only 0.7% of its GDP on higher education, the lowest in Europe. 

By December 2024, Vučić claimed that all demands had been met, hoping to capitalize on the fact that the government published just a portion of the documents related to the reconstruction at his request. The protesting students, however, insist that the documentation published on the government’s website and the Novi Sad Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office is incomplete, a concern echoed by some legal experts and others. 

That is why the protests are continuing. It seems they have the potential to bring the country to a standstill, as was the case on January 24. On that day, Belgrade’s streets were unusually empty. Many cafes, bakeries, restaurants, bookstores and cinemas closed in response to the students’ call for one-day strike, which sought to pressure the authorities to meet their demands. 

Stevan, a 37-year-old economist from Kruševac, joined the January 24 strike and blockades. “I didn’t go to work today, I didn’t go shopping today,” he said. “It’s the least I can do to support the students. The government must fulfill the demands, the institutions must start doing their job.”

“I believe the street is the only place where I can fight for a better society,” said Neda, who is 27 years old and from Belgrade. For her, the other alternative is leaving the country. “The government has to stop ignoring our demands. I’m no longer a student, but I fully support their demands.” 

Backstory: a tragedy in Novi Sad 

As the first photos and videos from the canopy collapse emerged, without information on how many were trapped under the rubble, pro-government media unanimously reported that it had not been part of a recent reconstruction. For many, these initial reports were the first signs that the authorities were attempting to wash their hands of responsibility. 

In the following days, media reports confirmed that both the canopy and the railway station had recently been renovated, furthering suspicions that negligence and corruption were responsible. Continuing investigation by independent media uncovered increasing evidence showing that the disaster could have been prevented. It revealed that a day before the canopy collapsed, the Institute of Transportation CIP had photographed the damage to the canopy. This issue was reported, but no responsible authority took action. Further reporting revealed that the canopy that collapsed weighed 23.11 tons more than the permitted amount.

As such, it seemed that determining who would be publicly held responsible and for what would be a matter of Vučić’s political calculations and attempt to minimize damage to the government, rather than ensure that those truly responsible face consequences.

Mounting public pressure, however, forced Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesić to resign on November 4, 2024. In the two weeks that followed, no further resignations nor arrests occurred. Finally, on November 20, 2024, Tomislav Momirović, Vesić’s predecessor, resigned from his current position as minister of trade. 

The next day, Vesić and other lower ranking public officials — but not Momirović — were arrested on suspicion of committing a criminal act against public safety. Vesić’s arrest was the first arrest of a former SNS government minister, although he was released from custody by order of the Higher Court of Novi Sad on November 27, 2024. 

Since Vučić’s SNS came to power in 2012, it has consolidated control over Serbian media and Serbia’s political system, often through elections marred by irregularities and abuse of state power. It has become increasingly difficult to disentangle the state, private business interests and SNS from one another. This means the protests can draw on years of public dissatisfaction about increasing state capture and overall corruption.

Growing protests vs. institutional hostility

Over the past three months, state institutions have responded to the protests with a mixture of passivity — delaying the full release of all relevant documentation — and hostility — criticizing the protestors and turning a blind eye to physical attacks on them. National Assembly President Ana Brnabić, one of the protestors’ sharpest critics, said the protests amounted to harassment of citizens and claimed that “It is not democracy when 20 or 50 people block an entire boulevard and the city, but rather violence and bullying.” However, the authorities’ reaction went beyond condemnation. 

SNS members and regime-affiliated individuals were also photographed and filmed physically confronting peaceful protesters at the blockades. One such altercation, in which students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Belgrade were injured, occurred on November 22, 2024. 

The police failed to protect the students and the attackers were not prosecuted, prompting the faculty to go on strike. Within days, over 60 faculties across four state universities were blockaded. 

Since then, over 3,500 academics in Serbia have expressed support for the student blockades. In a petition, they condemned authorities’ attempts to intimidate students by publicly sharing their private information, spreading misinformation about them in pro-government media and dispatching police and intelligence agents to their and their parents’ homes. 

Support for the protesting students extended beyond academia; a student-organized protest on December 22, 2024 drew 100,000 people. The next significant protests took place on New Year’s Eve. While folk music echoed from Republic Square in Belgrade, thousands of students and citizens, just a few hundred meters away, observed 15 minutes of silence to honor the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy. The students delivered a pointed message to the authorities: “There is no New Year, you still owe us for the old one.” 

Traffic blockades have also become a daily feature in Belgrade. On January 16, a 20-year-old law student taking part in one was deliberately hit by a car. While the police detained the attacker, who was charged with attempted murder, students staged a mass gathering in front of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade later that day, declaring: “You won’t run us over.”

Another protest unfolded on January 16, this one in front of the public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building, where, according to the Public Gatherings Archive, around 50,000 people gathered. Students reiterated their demands and voiced their frustration over RTS’ biased coverage of their cause. Despite months of protests, no student representative connected to the blockades and demonstrations has been invited to appear on any RTS programs. 

When asked why the protests receive such widespread support from citizens, political scientist Aleksandar Ivković attributed it to the fact that, according to public opinion surveys and election results, at least a third of Serbia’s citizens has been dissatisfied with the political situation and the government for years. 

This discontent, Ivković says, “has lacked a proper outlet for two reasons: the government has restricted the functioning of democratic institutions, such as elections, parliament and free media, and political opposition is fragmented and organizationally weak.” Ivković added that the Novi Sad tragedy grew the sense of dissatisfaction, “and the students provided them with a channel to express that discontent by supporting their demands.” 

In response to protests, the regime’s media machinery launched a relentless campaign in tabloids, with high-ranking government officials accusing students daily. Common accusations against students include claims that they are supported by Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and Croatian intelligence services, that they are foreign-funded and aim to destabilize the country or start a war or color revolution. Brnabić has also accused the students of aiming to separate Vojvodina, where Novi Sad is, from Serbia. 

While pushing such narratives, pro-government media outlets have even published students’ personal documents, violating the protection of personal data guaranteed by the Law on Personal Data Protection. 

The students have responded creatively. Early in 2025, they organized protests across smaller towns in Serbia under the slogan “Students Are Coming Home.” One of the goals of these protests in Serbia’s interior was to show their fellow citizens and neighbors — who tend to only consume media running smear campaigns against them — that they are not foreign mercenaries and have no intention of undermining the country.

Ivković believes that since the Novi Sad tragedy, the government’s top priority has been retaining the support of its existing voters. He says it has done this with two different strategies. 

“On the one hand, it has attempted to provoke demonstrators to portray their reactions as violent and thus discredit them. On the other hand, it has launched a campaign aimed at reassuring its supporters that the government remains stable, and above all, that President Vučić personally still enjoys significant support,” said Ivković. 

Ivković says the first strategy backfired. It was precisely this attempt at violent provocation that led to the blockade of faculties, while the second one is likely more effective, but only among the government’s existing supporters. 

What next?

The past week has emerged as an inflection point of sorts, though it is not clear where the protests are headed and what further changes may follow. After a 24-hour blockade of Belgrade’s busiest road junction on January 28, Vučić announced that all student demands would be accepted and called for lowering of tensions amid escalating protests across the country.

Several hours later, two students in Novi Sad were attacked by men with baseball bats who emerged from the SNS headquarters in the city. Following that attack, Vučević announced his resignation as prime minister. In a speech preceding his announcement, Vučević condemned polarization and criticized protesters and the opposition for raising tensions in the previous months. 

Vučević’s resignation means that Serbia’s government is now in a caretaker mandate. It remains unclear whether new parliamentary elections will be held or if the National Assembly will appoint a new prime minister.  

The fragmented and divided Serbian political opposition has not taken significant steps to politically channel and articulate public dissatisfaction. Its inaction is further complicated by student protestors publicly distancing themselves from the opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations, declaring that their struggle is for systemic change and the rule of law and justice rather than political gain. 

Several opposition parties have requested the formation of a transitional government, which the ruling SNS perceives as an attempt by the opposition to seize power without elections.

A survey conducted between December 20 and 28 by the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) shows that over 60% of the population supports protests and student blockades. The survey, which was published on January 15, further states that 44% of the population trusts the students while 27% trusts the president. 

Around this time, Vučić called on the opposition to initiate an “advisory referendum” on his removal. “If the decision is that more than 50% of people do not want me to be president,” Vučić said, he would resign on that very day. Vučić has mentioned such a referendum in past years, but Serbia’s Constitution says that the president cannot be relieved of office by referendum. 

In his daily addresses to the nation, Vučić occasionally mentions the possibility of elections. It wouldn’t be the first time that holding elections serves as his strategy for diffusing a crisis, given the predictable outcome. 

The last snap elections, held in December 2023, also came in response to a crisis: mass shootings in Belgrade and Mladenovac. Those elections exposed longstanding issues with electoral conditions, which cast doubt on the results for the local elections in Belgrade. 

It is hard to predict how long the student protesters can sustain the blockades, whether protests by other groups like educators, farmers and lawyers will continue and whether the uprising against the government will gain momentum or fizzle out. 

Whatever the protests’ outcome, they are proof that young people in Serbia are not apolitical and that they can fight for a better society. Young people face a simple choice: either they will take part in the struggle for a better country, or they will leave it. They have chosen to fight.

Feature image: Gavrilo Andrić.

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