Tens of thousands of people joined a rally on Saturday called by Serbia's protesting university students despite efforts by the government of authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic to curb mass demonstrations that shook his hard-line rule last year. Protesters streamed into a central square in the capital, Belgrade, from several directions, many carrying banners and wearing T-shirts inscribed with the "Students win" motto of the youth movement. Columns of cars drove into Belgrade from other Serbian towns earlier in the day. While the rally largely passed peacefully, the AP reports, clashes erupted between groups of protesters and riot police.
The students "managed to gather us here with their youth and wonderful energy; I really believe that we have right to live normally," protester Maja Milas Markovic said. The students led a nationwide wave of mass anti-corruption street protests demanding accountability for a train station tragedy in Serbia's north in November 2024 that killed 16 people. Those protests forced then-Prime Minister Milos Vucevic to resign before Vucic pushed back hard against the protesters. On Saturday, Serbia's state railway company canceled all trains to and from Belgrade in a bid to stop people from coming from other parts of the Balkan country.
Vucic's loyalists gathered in a park camp outside the Serbian presidency building that he set up ahead of a large anti-government rally last March as a human shield against protesters. Folk music blared from a fenced area surrounded by riot police in full gear. Groups of young demonstrators later broke off and clashed with riot police, throwing flares, rocks, and bottles at police cordons; officers responded with pepper spray as they charged forward to disperse them. Students now say they plan to challenge Vucic at elections later this year or next that they hope will oust the right-wing populist government. Vucic said this week that the ballot could be held between September and November of this year.
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