On November 1st, 2024, a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad, Serbia, causing the deaths of 15 people. The railway station was renovated in early 2024, and as a result of corruption and faulty construction, the canopy collapsed.

The protests started soon after, beginning as quiet vigils for the victims of the collapse. However, they soon escalated into larger and larger protests, with them now being held in over 200 cities in Serbia, and singular protest events bringing in thousands, tens of thousands, and at some points hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied Serbs.
These protests have been organized by Serbia’s student population, who are demanding accountability for the railway station collapse. The protests have grown to demand not just justice for the 15 victims, but also to fix the corruption-ridden Serbian government.

To get more insight into these protests, I talked to my friend Boris, a Serb that is actively protesting every day.
Q: How old are you and what grade of school are you in?
Boris: “18 years old, 4th grade high school/gymnasium.”
Q: What started these protests in the first place?
Boris: “The death of 15 people due to the collapse of the roof canopy on the train station in Novi Sad, which fell because it was poorly reconstructed by extremely corrupt officials and companies.”
Q: How long have you participated in the protests?
Boris: “Since the beginning, for around two months.”
Q: What made you want to participate in the protests?
Boris: “The hatred for corruption and the love for my country.”
Q: What are the goals of these protests, and have any of them been achieved so far?
Boris: “The goals are to legally prosecute those responsible for the canopy’s collapse, to prosecute those that illegally (and often violently) try to disrupt protests and hurt protesters, and to increase the budget for high education by 20%. No goals have been accomplished despite our government’s incorrect statements that they have.”
Q: How often are you at the protests?
Boris: “Almost every day. During the week, we protest by blocking schools and universities, and on Fridays and Sundays we go to the streets.”
Q: What kind of activities do you do during the protests?
Boris: “Every protest begins with 15 minutes of silence for the people killed by our corrupt government. After that we block streets and institutions, march, shout paroles and carry posters.”
Q: During a protest, do you feel safe, or is there any danger involved?
Boris: “I personally feel safe but there is danger involved. The police does not attempt to disrupt the protests, but some people get bribed by the government to attempt to hit people with cars or start fights. Several people have already been seriously injured by these car hits.”
Q: In your opinion, how can protests make a difference?
Boris: “By pressuring our public prosecutors into prosecuting the corrupt government officials.”
Q: Is there anything that you think people should know?
Boris: “Our government lies a lot about its own failures and the scale of the protests. The perceived progress in Serbia is a result of massive foreign debts that our government has been getting us into. Our grocery prices are absurdly high (often even two times worse than in the EU) because of the corruption, monopolies, and heavy taxes. Taxpayer money is stolen by the government and not used to improve the country. The largest protest yet in Novi Sad gathered 300,000 people. The population of the city is 300,000 people.”

Thankfully, Boris feels safe. However, there have been many cases of cars ramming protestors and groups of people attacking protesters, sometimes armed. On January 28, a group of masked men with baseball bats assaulted a group of protesters early in the morning, leaving one female student seriously injured. After this, the Serbian Prime Minister, Miloš Vučević, and the Mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić, both resigned. They revealed that the attackers were members of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the ruling party in Serbia. However, the President, Aleksandar Vučić, is still in charge of Serbia. Vučić has been firmly against the protesters, and at times has stated that he could bring in special forces to take care of them.
Despite the pushback from the government, it seems that the majority of Serbians are on the protester’s side. Besides the students, other supporters include education workers, professional associations such as the Bar Association of Serbia, athletes such as tennis player Novak Đoković, theatres and orchestras, and many more. Outside of the country, Serbian diaspora have been protesting in cities such as Sarajevo, Zagreb, Paris, Boston, and Washington, DC.
In Serbia, students are working hard to make a difference. They are an inspiration to students worldwide, and especially here in America.
