Thousands of Serbians blocked the main boulevard of the central city of Kragujevac on Saturday, the latest in a series of student-led protests over November last year’s deadly collapse of a train station roof.
The increasing pressure being applied by the university student-led movement has already forced the resignation of several high-ranking officials, including former prime minister Milos Vucevic at the end of last month.
Crowds gathered in the city center at the start of Serbia’s national statehood holiday calling for greater government accountability and reforms.
Photo: REUTERS
Protesters filled the streets well into the afternoon, waving flags marked with bloody handprints — the protests’ logo.
The Kragujevac blockade is the third day-long city demonstration, after Belgrade and Novi Sad a few weeks ago.
The collapse of the station roof in Novi Sad, which killed 15 people, followed extensive renovations to the building in the northern city.
The deaths fueled long-standing anger over corruption and demands for accountability.
At 10:52am, the time of the tragedy, protesters observed 15 minutes of silence to honor the victims.
The blockade was planned to last past midnight, which marks the anniversary of the first Serbian Constitution in 1835, one of the most progressive in Europe at the time.
Belgrade chemistry student Nikola Knezevic, 25, said it was important to hold protests beyond the capital. “To show not only Belgrade, but all these cities that support our demands, and that we support them. That is the message,” Knezevic said.
Dragana Mitic, 55, a professor from the same faculty, hailed the students for “fighting against corruption.”
Vladimir Petrovic, a 50-year-old from Kragujevac, said the students “awakened us from anesthesia,” as he served pies and sandwiches to the protesters.
“They have rekindled my hope,” he said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at a rally in the northern town of Sremska Mitrovica told thousands of supporters the country was being attacked from the outside “helped by many inside who manipulate our children.” He urged the protesters to engage in dialogue and to listen to him.
“Declare victory, you have had all your demands met, return to your benches,” he said. The government has already tried to meet some of the students’ demands in a bid to quell the months-long protests. However, the students in Kragujevac are continuing to call for greater transparency.
“None of the demands have been met by the competent institutions,” a letter from students read out at the protest said.
Ahead of Saturday’s rally, hundreds of students from Novi Sad, Belgrade and the southern city of Nis staged a four-day march that converged on Friday night at Kragujevac’s center.
“We are sending a message that this is a meeting with the people, with history and with the future that we are now building,” said one of the marchers, Milica Pavlovic, a 20-year-old electrical engineering student.
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