Thousands in Serbia turn New Year’s celebration into anti-government protest

Instead of the traditional raucous street party on New Year’s Eve, tens of thousands of protestors led by students gathered overnight in Belgrade and other Serbian cities to demand political reforms and justice in the Balkan country.

Protesters actively protested after the tragic collapse of a concrete canopy at the main train station in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1, resulting in 15 deaths.

The Serbian populist leadership attributed the tragedy to corruption and poor construction practices, which led to widespread public outcry and demands for accountability.

Students of various Belgrade universities organized a protest under the slogan “No New Year – you still owe us the old one”.

The loud crowd chanting “We want justice” fell silent at 11:52 p.m. and paid tribute to the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy for 15 minutes. Many held banners with a red handprint, which has become a symbol of anti-government protests, and told the authorities that they had bloody hands.

Earlier, they marched past a state-sponsored concert where the audience danced to the tunes of folk music. Police guarded the area where the concert was taking place and erected metal fences while directing protesters to other nearby streets to avoid contact between the two groups.

Anti-government protesters stressed that, despite the holiday season, their commitment to seeking justice remains unwavering. The student-led movement gained support from various social groups, including professors, farmers and actors, reflecting wider dissatisfaction with the leadership of autocratic President Aleksandar Vučić.

Thousands of people gathered in Novi Sad and the southern city of Niš at parallel meetings that were also led by students in those cities.

In Belgrade, state-sponsored concerts and other New Year’s celebrations were organized in the city center and in the newly built high-rise district Belgrade on the Water, which Vučić claimed was his project together with investors from the United Arab Emirates.

Belgrade has become a favorite place for tourists to have fun on New Year’s Eve, with street parties and big fireworks.

The audience in Belgrade endured very cold weather and fog to join the students. The New Year’s Eve protest comes just over a week after tens of thousands gathered alongside students in one of the largest gatherings in recent years in the Serbian capital.

On Monday, the Serbian Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted 13 people, including a former minister, for the collapse of the concrete canopy. The protesters say that this is not enough because the indictment does not include accusations of possible corrupt dealings during the renovation of the Novi Sad railway station, which was part of a wider deal with Chinese companies.

Vučić previously told the pro-government Prva TV that all student demands had been met.

“I was always ready to talk, now I’m asking them, but they don’t want to talk to me, they have no arguments, the prosecutors fulfilled their last request, all the documents they wanted were published and nothing happened,” Vučić said, adding that it will not be brought down by street protests.