Serbia’s students led a mass protest and blocked bridges over the River Danube in the northern city of Novi Sad on Saturday, drawing tens of thousands into the streets to express their anger with the country’s populist leadership and to call for change.
Saturday marked three months since a huge concrete canopy at Novi Sad’s main railway station collapsed, killing 15 people. The crash on Nov. 1 last year sparked a wide anti-corruption movement and months of student-led street protests.
Many in Serbia believe that the collapse was essentially caused by government corruption in a large infrastructure project with Chinese state companies.
Photo: Reuters
Critics believe graft led to a sloppy job during the reconstruction of the Novi Sad train station, poor oversight and disrespect of existing safety regulations. The issue has come to symbolize a wider discontent over the rule of law in Serbia.
Tens of thousands of people converged on Novi Sad for the blockades, dubbed “Three Months — Three Bridges.”
One of the blockades was set to extend until yesterday.
Photo: AFP
As the blockades started, entire bridges and the streets around them were flooded with people, while many more stood on the riverbanks below. Self-appointed student guards had to control the number of people walking on the bridges for security reasons.
“After long time we can feel positive energy in the air, on the streets, among people,” local resident Slavica Nikolic said.
“When I talk to people, it feels like the hope has woken up,” she said. “We remember well some uglier times. This is finally some sort of new hope, that something good is going to happen in this country.”
Roads into the city were clogged with cars ahead of the rally as people tried to reach Novi Sad from Belgrade and other Serbian cities.
Tractors rolled through the city streets as farmers drove in front of three separate student columns heading toward the three bridges and thousands of residents cheered them along the way. Many carried Serbian flags in the crowd or banners reading: “three months” or “We are defending freedom.”
University students have taken a leading role in the protests that have developed into the most serious challenge in years to the country’s powerful populist leader, President Aleksandar Vucic.
Vucic has accused students and other protesters of working for foreign intelligence services to oust him from power, while at the same time offering concessions and talks, and issuing veiled threats by saying that his supporters’ “patience is running out.”
“Today we offer talks and today we offer dialogue,” Vucic said on Saturday. “The second someone thinks that they will use violence to seize power, the state will act like a state, just like everywhere else in the world.”
Persistent demonstrations forced the resignation of Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic last week and various concessions from the populist government, as it seeks to quell growing resistance.
Thousands of people came out on Friday evening to welcome hundreds of students from Belgrade who had walked for two days to join the bridge blockades.
Apart from Novi Sad and Belgrade, daily protests and traffic blockades have been held throughout Serbia, often marred by incidents, including drivers ramming cars into protesters.
One such incident happened in Belgrade on Friday, leaving two women injured after a driver knocked them down.
Along the way on their 80km journey to Novi Sad on Thursday and Friday, the students from Belgrade were greeted by cheering citizens who honked their car horns or came out of their homes to offer food and drinks.
Hundreds more people on bicycles and motorcycles headed separately toward Novi Sad on Friday and Saturday while Belgrade’s taxi drivers said they would come too and give the marchers a lift home yesterday.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS