Protests in Serbia reach new peak

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• Nationwide protests against President Vucic and his Progressive Party are escalating in Serbia.
• The protests were triggered by the collapse of a train station roof in Novi Sad. Corruption and nepotism are said to be responsible for the construction defects at the newly renovated station.
• The movement, initiated by students, has spread to over 30 cities and now unites different population groups of various ethnicities.
• Vucic is under pressure, but remains firmly in the saddle. This is despite the fact that the historical alliance with the protecting power Russia has cracked. Vucic wants to lead Serbia into the EU.

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The protests in Serbia escalate once again. In the second-largest city of Novi Sad in the north of the country, people smashed the windows of the headquarters of the ruling Progressive Party (SNS), broke into the building and removed objects, as reported by Serbian media.

In Belgrade, SNS supporters attacked the government opponents with fireworks. The atmosphere was chaotic, the media reported. Rallies took place in more than 30 locations - in front of the local offices of the Progressive Party.

Dozens of people, including members of the police, were injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.

People are protesting against corruption and the authoritarian tendencies of Alexander Vucic's government and the Progressive Party, to which he belongs. He has held various offices in Serbia since 2012. One of the central demands of the demonstrators is new elections. Another is the investigation into the collapse of a newly renovated train station roof in Novi Sad.

On November 1, 2024, a canopy of the newly renovated Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing 16 people. Independent experts and members of the opposition blame the government for the construction defects, claiming that corruption and nepotism are rampant under the government. Since the accident in Serbia's second-largest city, protests have flared up again and again.

Large-scale protest in Serbia

Authorities deny use of military sound cannons

The protests have started with students. They are occupying or blockading universities across the country, ensuring that people all over the country are taking to the streets against the Vucic government.

The largest demonstrations to date took place in March with over 300,000 protesters. The movement has now grown beyond the student population.

Balkan Insight magazine highlights the fact that members of different ethnic groups are fighting together against the government as particularly noteworthy. In previous decades in Serbia, it was mostly individual ethnic groups fighting against others.

Starting in Novi Sad, the site of the train station disaster, the protests spread to other cities with universities. The largest: Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac, Cacak. The most recent demonstrations took place in over 30 places.

Three games, two wins

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The protests against Vucic are reminiscent of those against former President Solobodan Milosevic in the fall of 2000. More people are taking part in the current demonstrations. Back then, the demonstrators stormed parliament and Milosevic, one of the architects of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, fled. He later died in custody before the trial against him at the International Criminal Court began.

The current Serbian head of state is far removed from this. During the largest protests in March, Vucic reassuringly declared that the government recognized the dissatisfaction and had to change. In practically the same breath, he complained that many of the demonstrators were drunk and that the police had found weapons caches. He did not provide any proof of this.

However, he then went on to blame the opposition for sending their children onto the streets or foreign forces that wanted to weaken Serbia. He recently described the demonstrators as criminals and "Ustasha" - the fascist Croatian fighting group that fought alongside the German Wehrmacht in the Balkans during the Second World War.

There are repeated reports that individual police units are not taking action against protesters, most recently in attacks on local offices of the ruling Progress Party in Novi Sad - which Vucic immediately criticized.

Russia is Serbia's traditional protecting power and the government in Belgrade is considered an ally of Moscow. The landlocked country in the Balkans is heavily dependent on Russia for energy imports. A pipeline project with Russia and Hungary recently made headlines.

However, the historic alliance has cracks. Vucic sees himself as Serbia's modernizer and wants to lead his country into the EU. Serbia is a candidate for membership, but Brussels still has to contend with deficits in the rule of law. The biggest obstacle is the relationship with Kosovo.

Serbia is not participating in sanctions against Russia. At the same time, however, Serbian manufacturers are selling weapons to Ukraine. Vucic has repeatedly stated that the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected. He has also reportedly met with Ukrainian President Zelensky several times.

Supplies for Ukraine

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At the military parade on Victory Day in Moscow in 2025, Alexander Vucic had to take a seat far away from Vladimir Putin. In 2018, he was still standing right next to him.

The Serbian government is therefore not particularly popular in the Kremlin. The Serbian magazine Vreme quotes an analyst who explains that the Kremlin deeply distrusts Vucic. At the same time, it is not in Russia's interests for the opposition to take power in Belgrade, which is even less Russia-friendly than the current government.

It is also clear that the Russian president currently has other priorities than the protests in Serbia.