It all started with an accident. The collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy back in November 2024, causing 15 deaths.
It was students who started the protests. Then they were joined by taxi drivers, lawyers and farmers. Anger was quickly directed towards the government, along with accusations of widespread corruption. There were calls for transparency and accountability, but also demands to reform higher education.
After the tragedy in Novi Sad, the government took swift actions: 13 people have been charged over the disaster. Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and two ministers have resigned, one of them, former construction minister Goran Vesic is among those indicted. The government has announced an anti-corruption campaign. A new bill for higher education was adopted, increasing the funds by 20 percent.
The problem got the highest possible level of attention.
Yet, the protests didn’t stop once the initial requests were met.
In came a few new actors, among them Serbia’s opposition, having decided to ride the bandwagon. What once was a genuine and well-intentioned grassroots movement, demanding answers to a tragedy, got quickly hijacked by political opportunism.
The students (the initiators of the movement) protested for clearly defined and limited goals. Their movement was (is) non-political, trying to keep the opposition away.
Yet, the single tragedy that was more likely some kind of construction error than the sign of government incompetence in a country with stable economics and raising salaries, quickly evolved in the differing narratives into the evidence of widespread, systematic corruption, without much proof.
Some activists (and the opposition) have been nurturing plans of ousting the current government and establishing a “government of experts” to pave the way for fresh elections. Some went so far as to call for President Vucic’s removal and imprisonment.
The movement has neither a clear structure or leadership, nor a clear plan for democratic change, except for shouting “pump it up!”.
It doesn’t mean that there are no leaders, though. No protest this size can work without one – only, the real beneficiaries decided not to reveal themselves, using the well-intentioned students and citizens as forefronts.
In the four months since Novi Sad, the demands for identifying the people responsible for the tragedy have been replaced by the vaguer claims that the government was “depriving” people of their freedom as the opponents of the current government tried to fuel the flames of anger and channel it into political action.
Opposition politicians tried to extend the protests into the parliament, too: on March 4, the opening day of the spring session of the parliament, opposition lawmakers threw eggs and water bombs, lit flares and set of tear gas grenades. A few hours later, the co-leader of the opposition Green-Left Front, Radomir Lazović let off a fire extinguisher, justifying his fellow lawmakers’ deeds as “a response to the violence that has been perpetrated against the citizens of Serbia for 13 years”.
Speaking of violence: several deputies got injured in the chaos, as one female lawmaker was hit on the head with an object and another suffered a stroke.
It sounds more like the ancient principle of ‘eye for an eye’ than adherence to rule of law.
Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic compared the opposition to a “terrorist gang”.
No wonder that suspicions grew about foreign interference, as well, evoking images of the “colour revolutions” across the continent.
The more so, as a group of MEPs in the European Parliament has sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the EU to intervene in Serbia and force Vucic out by ensuring “free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, pluralistic media” before releasing any EU funds to the country.
The EU, so far, has only remined the opposition that the parliament was supposed to be the place of solemn and dignified debate.
But reports in various European media outlets talked about great expectations and the ‘sweeping changes’ the protests can achieve, as if conveying predictions.
In a separate development, the offices of four NGOs had been raided by law enforcement officials, all suspected of misuse of funds and money laundering, following President Trump’s example (and the steps he took against USAID).
The government was accused of inciting even more tension, even planning to attack the peaceful protesters by “unleashing its most violent supporters against” them (that means anybody from football hooligans to the infamous Red Berets unit), as Vuk Vuksanović, an analyst at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy claimed.
Others dreamed about a Serbian “D-Day”, and endgame that might shake President Vucic’s power.
Opposition politicians have circulated claims that Serbia’s security service planned to arrest them.
Apparently, the government wasn’t interested in escalating the situation, no matter what the opposition claimed.
The protest on March 15 held under the name “15th for the 15”, in a clear reference to the Novi Sad accident, saw around 100,000 protest against the government (opposition outlets put this number anywhere between 275,000 and 325,000) on the streets of Belgrade. The largest in the country since the protests against Slobodan Milošević three decades ago.
Though, in the days running up to the protest, many feared violence – the day unfolded peacefully, with only a few minor clashes outside Serbia’s parliament. 56 people were injured. On the other hand, 22 people needed to be arrested for various infractions, including a man who drove his cars into protesters.
If anything, President Vucic and his government showed the maturity expected from responsible politicians. Vucic announced that they “got the message” and promised further reforms.
Photo: Mario Bojic / X.com
