in november last year, a wave of what may be the largest student protests in the history of serbia began, with universities in serbia being blockaded by students for more than 2 months. it all started on november 1st in novi sad, when the canopy at the main train station collapsed, killing 15 people. just three weeks later, there was a violent attack against students at the faculty of dramatic arts. since then, the violence has not stopped. participants in the peaceful protests have been victims of brutal assaults, including being run over by cars, with some suffering serious head and jaw injuries. all of these attacks have been orchestrated by the ruling party.
on december 22 last year, over 100,000 people gathered in protest at slavija square. numerous mass protests, with thousands or even tens of thousands of participants, followed after slavija. on january 27, autokomanda—a road junction in belgrade—was blocked by tens of thousands of protesters for 24 hours.
yesterday, several hundred students set off on foot from belgrade to novi sad. they had to spend the night under the open sky because someone refused to let them use a sports hall.
the students are determined to keep fighting until the authorities fulfill all their demands, which are: the publication of the complete documentation related to the reconstruction of the railway station in novi sad, the publication of the findings of the investigation on those responsible for the attack against students of the faculty of dramatic arts and all later attacks, the immediate release of all citizens who had been detained during the non-violent protests, a withdrawal of all legally unfounded criminal and misdemeanor charges against citizens and a 20% increase in funds for state universities.
As someone who attended most of these protests and blockades I also wish to note that the vibe within this mass of people is so much different than what happened during previous mass protests in Serbia. You genuinely feel the connection of the students and people around you and its clear that they all want the same thing.
Our opposing gov party is absolutely useless and in some ways very similar to our current government, so its very refreshing to see the way the students have completely separated themselves from them or any other party. They repeatedly state this on their social media and interviews, despite still dealing with comments that they are funded by this and this party or this party is actually leading them. Go to any protest here and you will see they are leading themselves, funded only by donations from the citizens via food and blankets (as they are also sleeping in their universities often)
That is why its also amazing that every protest you see in these pictures were self organized by students, with them acting as the peacekeepers and “living walls” between the masses and streets or important buildings. This is because, most of the time a protest happened in the past in our country some random people with caps, hoodies and masks would show up to start smashing government buildings and fighting with police. Everyone is aware this is a tactic by our government to try to make the protestors look aggressive, but the students are smart. As an example you can see that in this picture after students in Novi Sad organized a protest, protecting the place they came to protest in front of as its owned by our government leading party:
It genuinely gives me hope for people my age in this country, to see that my generation is done with this bullshit and that they wont live by the fear and manipulation that is affecting the older generations here.
For the first time in years, I may actually wish to continue living here because of the hope these young people put in me and others.
So there’s been very little coverage on this especially in non-Balkan online spaces, especially with the full breadth of context provided, so I feel compelled to add some stuff here. Plus I think this whole moment is genuinely inspirational in spite of the godawful circumstances and that it’s worth sharing right now for several reasons.
OP’s got some more recent posts you can check out, but I’m reblogging this one specifically because the addition from prev perfectly puts into words why these protests seem so different from the disappointing decade-long wave that came before, and I’d just like to expand on why that feels like such a big deal.
More context, sources and photo/video under the cut.
