Protesters gathered in centre of Belgrade, Serbia, January 24 2025. Photo: BIRN
Tens of thousands of people joined students and pupils in Belgrade for a protest walk across the city and joined the call for a “general strike” on Friday.
At 11:52, as they have done every day for several weeks, school pupils, students, teachers and ordinary citizens gathered in front of the Serbian government building in Belgrade and the New Belgrade Municipality building on the other side of the capital.
After standing for 15 minutes in silence in memory of the 15 victims of the Novi Sad railway station disaster on November 1, the crowds met up near the Usce Shopping Mall in the New Belgrade district, supported by teachers and citizens and holding various types of banners and placards with slogans.
Protester injured by driver
A female student who was in charge of protest security was injured in Belgrade on Friday when a car hit her while driving down a street on which protesters were demonstrating.
The driver initially tried to drive thorough the protesters, but students prevented her. She stopped the car but then accelerated again, hit the student and knocked her to the ground.
The protesters stopped the driver again and held her until police arrived. She has been identified as M.S., aged 26. Some media reported that she is being held on suspicion of attempted murder.
The protests, which began in November, demanding official accountability and justice for the disaster, have become the biggest challenge the authorities have faced since the Serbian Progressive Party took power in 2012.
Hristina Stanisavljevic and Andrea Tijanic, both art students, held placards reading: “The system needs a redesign”.
Tijanic said the protesters had “managed to unite without any blackmail or money, and the voice of the people has won over everything else”.
“There are still people who have been blackmailed, but more and more of them are standing on the right side… You can see how deserted it is in the city and how many people joined the strike, it’s incredible how everyone agreed that nothing should be done or bought today, that we should be at home with our families or here. It’s phenomenal,” she told BIRN.
Protesters Hristina Stanisavljevic and Andrea Tijanic with placards reading: “The system needs a redesign”. Photo: BIRN
Matija, a 45-year-old sailor, brought a cardboard binder for documents with a bloody hand on it, one of the symbols of the recent protests. He said it symbolized “all the corrupt crimes of the current government and lies which lead to the death of 15 people” in the Novi Sad disaster.
“The bloody hand on the binder just outlines their bloody hands, with which they stained the last 12 years of our lives,” he told BIRN.
He added that the whole of Serbia needs to stop in order for citizens to find out everything that the government wants to hide. “If everything stops, that’s the only way we can clearly show them that there is no more playing with us and that we don’t have any more time,” he said.
As well as in Belgrade, protests were held in Novi Sad, Nis, Zajecar, Valjevo, Sombor, Kraljevo, Pozega and many other cities and towns. A protest was even held in the central Serbian town of Jagodina, where the governing Progressive Party planned to hold a counter-rally later on Friday afternoon.
Protestor Matija holds a cardboard binder for documents with a bloody hand, a symbol of the protests, on it. Photo: BIRN
Workers show support
Serbian media reported that, as protest marchers passed some courts, judges left the premises and stood outside as a form of support. Media also reported that in some cities, medical workers and workers in social care institutions either left their workplaces while the protesters were passing by or made statements of support.
Many others responded to the students’ call for a “general strike” on Friday.
Among those who announced a work stoppage was one of the biggest cinema networks in the country, which covers Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac as well as smaller towns. Many associations of workers in the film industry declared a strike.
Many theatres across the country were not working and the Bar Association has expanded its halt to work to include three more days. Schools have not worked or have worked only partially since Monday.
Many restaurants and cafes supported the strike, but others that were against the strike offered free coffee and teas to all customers. Many popular Belgrade nightclubs have cancelled their Friday night programmes.
The History Archive of Belgrade did not work on Friday. The Independent Union of Culture of Serbia announced that its members will not work in any cultural institutions in the country that day. The Yugoslav Film Archive, Jugoslovenska kinoteka, also stopped working.
Many bookshops and publishers, including some big commercial ones, also declared they will not work on Friday Some big companies also declared they would not work.
A group of IT workers blocked a road intersection in the New Belgrade district and later joined the protesting students.
The Media Freedom Coalition called on media outlets to support the strike and to report only on the strike on Friday. Protests were also held in front of the premises of the national broadcaster, RTS.
University faculty blockades
Amid the ongoing protests, students have been blockading university buildings for almost two months since a protester was attacked in front of the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts on November 22.
Commemorative silent protests lasting 15 minutes have been held regularly in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other towns ever since the Novi Sad railway station disaster.
The collapse of the canopy at the train station followed major renovation works that began in 2021 as part of a Chinese-led upgrade of Serbia’s railway infrastructure.
The works were unveiled in 2022 during that year’s election campaign but the reconstruction then continued until July 2024, when the authorities declared the station had been rebuilt “according to European standards”.
Thirteen people, including Serbia’s construction minister at the time, have been charged with endangering public safety over the canopy collapse.
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