Serbia’s protesting college students rally to mark 7 months since prepare station tragedy

Serbian college students stage an anti-government protest demanding early elections, in Belgrade, Serbia, May 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Thousands of individuals on Sunday (June 1, 2025) vowed to maintain on preventing for justice and the rule of regulation in Serbia as they demanded that President Aleksandar Vucic name a snap parliamentary election following months of persistent demonstrations which have challenged his agency grip on energy within the Balkan nation.

Protesters led by university students blocked bridges within the capital Belgrade and rallied in 30 different Serbian cities and cities as in addition they marked precisely seven months since a concrete cover collapsed at a prepare station within the north, killing 16 individuals and sparking the huge wave of anti-corruption protests.

“The whole of Serbia has risen,” protesting college students mentioned in a speech that was learn in any respect the rallies on the similar time, “There will be no more silence, there will be no more surrender!”

Many individuals in Serbia consider that the lethal November 1 cover collapse in Novi Sad was the results of flawed renovation work on the station constructing, they usually hyperlink the catastrophe to alleged authorities corruption in main infrastructure tasks with Chinese state firms.

President Vucic, whom critics have accused of imposing authoritarian rule in Serbia since coming to energy over a decade in the past, initially dismissed the opportunity of holding early elections however on Friday (May 30, 2025) advised they might happen, although with out saying precisely when.

Sunday’s (June 1, 2025) protests included commemoration ceremonies for the victims of the Novi Sad crash and scholar marches and blockades. In Belgrade, crowds halted site visitors at two key bridges over the Sava River for 3 hours, whereas protesters in Novi Sad carried a white wreath for the cover collapse victims as they walked towards the crash website.

Mina Miletic, from Belgrade, mentioned she is inspired by so many individuals preventing collectively for a similar aim: “The rule of law and life in a decent country.”

President Vucic has accused the protesters of working for unspecified Western powers to “destroy Serbia.”

Pro-government media on Sunday (May 30, 2025) described the blockades in Belgrade as “terror” and falsely alleged that “only a handful” of individuals joined the rallies.

Most media in Serbia are managed by the ruling populists, usually lashing out at authorities opponents and accusing them of anti-state actions.

The scholar motion is in search of a snap vote, arguing that the present authorities can not meet their calls for for justice for the crash victims. Presidential and parliamentary elections are in any other case due a while in 2027.

No one has been sentenced in reference to the tragedy in Novi Sad and doubts prevail that ongoing authorized proceedings will uncover the alleged corruption behind the crash.

Serbia is formally in search of European Union entry however the ruling populists have been accused of clamping down on democratic freedoms, together with free media. President Vucic’s authorities have stepped up strain on protesters, together with police detentions, intimidation and bodily assaults.