Serbia student protesters demand resignation of government News
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Serbia student protesters demand resignation of government

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Sunday to demonstrate against President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), blamed for the railway station roof collapse last month that took the lives of fifteen people.

Led by university students and farmer unions, the protest was held in Belgrade’s Slavija Square, with demands including the resignation of President Vučić and the mayor of Novi Sad, the city where the roof collapse occurred.

According to the Arhiv Javnih Skupova (Archive of public meetings), around one hundred thousand people gathered in the capital, one of the largest in Serbia in recent years. At the end of the protest, a group of students thanked all the participants and promised that this is just the beginning of the demonstration.

Reacting to the protests, President Vučić accused the opposition of using students to come to power without elections, and vowed that he will never accept the request to form an interim government in Serbia.

The president of the National Movement of Serbia (NPS), Miroslav Aleksić, reacted to the protests through a speech in Novi Sad, saying that “the most important thing now is for Serbia to stand up, because there is no restart without a general strike.”

In November a railway station roof collapsed killing fifteen people, with prosecutors arresting thirteen individuals, including a government minister. Opposition leaders have repeatedly attributed the accident to shoddy construction driven by government corruption and nepotism, allegations denied by the ruling coalition.

In the last two years the country has undergone a period of several anti-government protests. Earlier this year, thousands of protesters marched on the streets of Serbia against Rio Tinto’s lithium mining project, citing environmental concerns. In December 2023, opposition parties protested against the general and local election results, claiming of widespread fraud by the ruling SNS, while the European Parliament called the elections not free and fair due to irregularities.

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