Belgrade’s main gathering place, Republic Square, was already full to bursting point by one o’clock. The main part of the rally was not due to start until four hours later.
Some people took refuge from the throng on the plinth of Prince Mihailo’s statue. Long lines of young people stretched back towards Students’ Square, as they paraded behind the banners of their faculties: philosophy, languages, the University of Arts. Some carried papier-mâché figures, grotesque representations of local and international political figures, as if this were some sort of carnival rather than a massive protest against corruption, corner-cutting and cronyism.
Other groups joined in, with their own flags and banners. The red, yellow and black colours of the Ferrari Formula 1 racing team were particularly prominent, a reference to the protests of the 1990s, when Slobodan Milošević claimed that anti-government demonstrations were sponsored by foreign governments. Waving the logo of an expensive Italian sports car marque was the protesters’ way of saying “yeah, right – and here’s our foreign sponsor”.
Madonna also made an appearance, but only on a flag. She has made new Serbian fans by voicing her support for the student protests which are now into their fifth month and show no signs of diminishing.
If you could muscle your way through Republic Square to the wide pavements of the Terazije shopping district, you would find the street vendors doing a roaring trade. Their top-selling items were whistles and vuvuzelas, promptly and noisily deployed by their purchasers.
Merchandise bearing the word “pumpaj” was also flying off the carts. The unofficial slogan of the protest movement translates as “pump it up”, which refers to increasing pressure on president Aleksandar Vučić and his governing Progressive Party.
The discontent was triggered by last November’s disaster at the railway station in the country’s second city, Novi Sad. A concrete canopy collapsed at the recently renovated terminus, killing 15 people, leading to widespread outrage.
That is understandable, given that the station was a key part of the government’s flagship infrastructure project, the high-speed Belgrade to Budapest railway line. And president Vučić had ensured that he was very visibly associated with the work.
I was at the opening ceremony of the station in 2022, attended by both Vučić and Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán. On the extremely speedy return journey to Belgrade, Vučić plied me with Serbian wines and proudly insisted that the project would help to bring modernisation and prosperity to the country.
So when the canopy collapsed, just four months after the station had been reopened a second time, the outpouring of anger was enormous. If this could happen to the government’s signature project, what did that say about everything else the Progressive Party was doing in Serbia? The slogan “we are all under the canopy” soon appeared on banners at protests around the country, alongside “corruption kills” and “blood on your hands”.
The “15th for 15” gathering in Belgrade was the largest protest Serbia had ever seen. Even the government estimated the crowd size at over 100,000. An independent monitor calculated that it was three times larger.
All of this has left Vučić rattled. The student protesters have proved a far more resilient foe than his political opponents. They are demanding nothing less than full accountability and transparency: “a country that works,” as law student Jana Vesić put it to me. Standing nearby, her professor Miodrag Jovanović allowed himself a satisfied smile. “They are asking for everything I’ve been lecturing about,” he told me. “The rule of law, respect for the constitution, and the responsibility and accountability of public officials”.
As for the president, at a press conference on the eve of the big protest he told me that he believed the students are “well intentioned” but that they are being manipulated by opposition parties. “I don’t give in to blackmail,” he said. “I won’t allow the street to pave a horrible future for this country”.
Vučić’s tone ahead of the protest left everyone concerned that there might be trouble, especially after a camp of counterprotesters set up tents in front of his office. In the end, there were only a few isolated scuffles and a mere 22 arrests, with the president announcing he was “proud that we kept the peace”.
But the big issues remain unresolved. The students say they will keep going until they are satisfied the authorities have been completely honest about the causes of the Novi Sad disaster. Mr Vučić says he believes they will never be satisfied. Something – or someone – has got to give.
Guy De Launey is an award-winning Balkans correspondent
