Student-led protesters in Serbia rally against populist government

Hundreds of protesters led by university students have staged a rally outside Serbia’s state television headquarters in Belgrade as the wave of demonstrations against the populist government headed by President Aleksandar Vučić continues to grow.

The protests initially erupted last month after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad killing 15 people.

Blowing whistles and jeering, the protesters said they are angry that RTS television is carrying Vučić’s allegations that the students were paid by the West to hold protests in a bid to overthrow his government.

Classes at more than 40 university faculties throughout Serbia have been suspended for days.

Many in Serbia blame the canopy collapse on rampant corruption in the country that led to sloppy renovation work on the station building in Novi Sad, part of a wider deal with Chinese state companies involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the Balkan country.

The disaster has become a flashpoint for broader dissatisfaction with the president’s growingly autocratic rule, reflecting public demands for democratic changes.

Almost daily protests have been held since 1 November in Novi Sad, Belgrade and other cities across Serbia, which sometimes turned violent.

Vučić announced at a news conference on Wednesday evening that documentation regarding the renovation of the Novi Sad railway building would be made public, as students have requested.

Prosecutors have launched an investigation and detained 13 people.

But one government minister has been released, fuelling widespread speculation over the probe as the ruling Serbian Progressive Party also controls both the police and the judiciary.

As Vučić spoke on Wednesday, hundreds of students also blew whistles and horns outside the presidency building, which could be heard in the live coverage of the address.

The students on Thursday said they also want those who attacked peaceful protesters arrested.

“We came to give back the money,” one of the students told the crowd as they symbolically left improvised money bags outside the headquarters of RTS, which has been accused of spreading the nationalist pro-government narrative for years. 

“You can hand them to the president and tell him that we want a public apology.”