Mass student-led protests have been ongoing in Serbia for over nine months, triggered by a Novi Sad railway station roof collapse that killed 16 people and was blamed on entrenched fraud and corruption linked to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Protesters demand early elections, transparency, and accountability in an EU candidate country. President Aleksandar Vučić has responded with increasingly draconian measures, accusing foreign agitators, cracking down on civil society groups receiving foreign funds, and tolerating orchestrated attacks on protesters and looting of opponents' businesses. Reports indicate widespread police brutality. The protests expose growing domestic repression and wider destabilising regional ambitions.
For more than nine months, mass student-led protests in Serbia have been challenging the authoritarian rule of Aleksandar Vucic, who has been in office as prime minister and president for 11 years. Up to now, Brussels has largely opted to look away. The catalyst for some of the largest demonstrations in Serbia's history was the collapse of a newly renovated railway station roof in the country's second city, Novi Sad, leading to the deaths of 16 people.
The disaster was widely attributed to entrenched fraud and corruption presided over by Mr Vucic's ruling Serbian Progressive party, and swiftly became the spark for a movement for democratic reform. The students are demanding early elections and a new era of transparency and accountability, in what remains an EU candidate country. As anger and frustration in the streets has mounted, Mr Vucic's response has become increasingly draconian.
Groundlessly claiming that foreign agitators were seeking an imported revolution, the president launched a ruthless crackdown on civil society groups in receipt of foreign funds. On the streets, orchestrated mobs this month attacked protesters and reportedly looted businesses owned by opponents of Mr Vucic. There have been widespread reports of police brutality. Amid the spiral of violence, one recent anti-government demonstration in Belgrade took place under the slogan Let's show them we're not a punchbag.
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