Serbian Anti-Corruption Protests “Students in Blockade”.

Serbia, Belgrade and nationwide. Protest began in Novi sad on 1 november 2024 and rapidly spread to Belgrade and then the rest of Serbia.

Since November 2024 and ongoing.

On 1 November 2024, the concrete canopy of the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing sixteen people. The station had been renovated with funding from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, hastily reopened in a ceremony attended by President Vučić, and the canopy fell just four months after its reinauguration. Many Serbs blamed rampant government corruption and disregard for construction safety regulations. Students at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade organised the first major protest on 22 November and launched blockades of universities. The slogan “corruption kills” captured the public anger. What began as a student-led response to a train station collapse in Novi Sad in November 2024 has grown into the largest protest movement in Serbia’s history, and what Civil Rights Defenders describes as the largest student movement in the modern history of the Balkans. On 15 March 2025, an estimated 300,000 people flooded Belgrade’s streets, surpassing even the demonstrations that toppled Slobodan Milošević in 2000. At its core, the movement remains student-led: university students initiated the blockades, set the demands, and have driven the momentum throughout.

Protesters demand full transparency over the station renovation documents, criminal accountability for those responsible, dropped charges against demonstrating students, and a larger higher-education budget. Underlying these demands is a broader call for the rule of law and democratic accountability.

Offline protest: street demonstrations, university blockades, silent marches and road blockades.

Students blockaded faculties and organised daily 15-minute road blockades at exactly the time the canopy collapsed, as a silent tribute to the victims. On 15 March 2025, over 100,000 people gathered in front of the Serbian parliament in Belgrade. Police used force on several occasions, including alleged use of a sonic device during a moment of silence. Young people exhausted by corruption and impunity. The movement calls itself “Students in Blockade” and emphasises non-violence and horizontal organisation. Transparency, justice, democracy. The central symbol is a red blood-stained hand with the caption “your hands are bloody”, directed at the authorities.

The Serbian public, the EU and international actors. Students cycled to Strasbourg and ran marathons to Brussels to draw international attention. The government and state media framed the protests as politically manipulated from abroad. Russia described the movement as a “colour revolution” They also emphasize that the protest severely disrupts public order. President Vučić, state broadcaster RTS, and Russian state media are the main actors advancing counternarratives.