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On 1 November 2024, a concrete canopy collapsed at the renovated railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia\u2019s second city, killing fifteen people and severely injuring two more. Three weeks later, as students and academics at Belgrade\u2019s Faculty of Dramatic Arts held a silent vigil for the victims, they were attacked by a group of masked men. Last week I spoke with Vanja \u0160evi\u0107, a 22-year-old graduate student at the university. \u2018The response has been way bigger than we thought,\u2019 she told me. \u2018It is a fight for justice. The message is that we can\u2019t tolerate this any more.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Protests broke out across Serbia after the Novi Sad disaster. Adopting a red handprint for a symbol and \u2018corruption kills\u2019 as their slogan, demonstrators blamed the collapse on rampant graft in the construction industry (Serbia\u2019s railway infrastructure is being upgraded with funds from China). Tens of thousands took to the streets to confront the government of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, whose Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has been in power since 2012. <\/p>\n
The protests continued, and so did the violent response. The men who attacked the art students on 22 November are widely believed to be senior members of the SNS. In January, a gathering outside the SNS headquarters in Novi Sad was attacked by men with baseball bats. Cars have been driven into crowds of protesters.<\/p>\n
The students\u2019 resolve has only hardened. By December, three-quarters of the country\u2019s universities had joined the protests. At the end of the year, 100,000 people took to Slavija Square in Belgrade in the largest demonstration in Serbia for at least two decades. In January, students initiated a 24-hour blockade of the capital. Farmers on tractors joined them, in a vivid echo of the revolt that brought down Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s regime in 1999. When students marched from Belgrade to Novi Sad in early February, they were met by thousands of well-wishers, who gave them sleeping bags and home-cooked meals. Taxi drivers offered their services pro bono for the return leg of the journey. Opinion polls indicate that more than 60 per cent of Serbs support the students. It has been described as the biggest European student-led movement since 1968. <\/p>\n