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.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS