Tens of thousands of people in Serbia gathered on Saturday for a huge student-led rally that vowed to turn the troubled, populist-run Balkan country into a free nation of justice and rule of law, while sending a message that “we deserve better.”
University students in the Balkan country that has been ruled firmly by a right-wing, pro-Russia government for more than a decade have been holding nationwide protests since the fatal train station canopy collapse in November last year that killed 15 people and which critics blame on government corruption.
The almost daily protests regularly draw tens of thousands of people and have rattled Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s firm grip on power.
Photo: Reuters
“We want the [state] institutions that work in the interest of all of us and not to our damage,” the students said in a statement. “We want a system that values knowledge and work, and not obedience and silence.”
Protesters from across the country gathered in Nis, about 200km south of Belgrade, for Saturday’s festival-style rally lasting for 18 hours.
“We rally, because we know we deserve better,” the statement said.
The event in Nis passed a symbolic decree that proclaimed the “values for which we fight as a pledge for the future,” and to build a state “in which justice and freedom will be stronger than any individual.”
The next major protest is to be held in the capital, Belgrade, on Saturday next week, organizers said.
Vucic, who has described the protests as a Western-orchestrated attempt to oust him from power, on Saturday dismissed the Nis rally, declaring that “support is falling” and that he thinks “nothing special” of it.
The students have garnered widespread support among the citizens who have largely been disillusioned with mainstream politicians and have lost hope of changes.
Serbia is formally on the path toward EU membership, but Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have been accused of stifling democratic freedoms and fueling rampant corruption since coming to power.
Residents in Nis staged a noisy welcome for the students on Friday evening as they marched into the city after walking for several days in groups from various directions.
These student marches have become a rallying force in Serbia’s rural areas, which are traditionally pro-government. Everywhere students showed up people greeted them with food and refreshments, while many cried and kissed them.
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