Serbia’s largest opposition movement in decades has escalated into a direct challenge to President Aleksandar Vucic as student-led anti-corruption protests spread from university campuses to towns across the country and authorities step up a forceful crackdown.
What began as weekly student demonstrations following a canopy collapse that killed at least 16 people has moved beyond demands for accountability in a single tragedy to broader calls for early elections, an independent judiciary and an end to perceived impunity among ruling-party elites.
The demonstrations, which opposition figures and rights groups say are the most sustained challenge to Vucic’s decade-long hold on power, have drawn increasingly heavy-handed responses from police and security forces. Protesters and human-rights monitors have reported beatings, arbitrary arrests and the use of tear gas, stun grenades and sonic devices. Authorities have also deployed plainclothes officers and irregular parapolice units, including organized groups of soccer hooligans, to break up gatherings.
The current wave traces back to a deadly canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station on Nov. 1, 2024. The structure was part of a renovation project backed by Chinese investment, and the disaster intensified public anger over alleged state corruption and negligence. University students initially marked the dead by blocking traffic for 15 minutes each Friday; their actions rapidly widened in scope as ordinary citizens frustrated by economic hardship and perceived elite impunity joined.
At first the protests took the form of marches, sit-ins and campus occupations. Each crackdown, however, has prompted a broader public response, creating a cycle of confrontation. Demonstrations have now reached dozens of cities and small towns that rarely saw such sustained mobilization in previous years.
President Vucic, who built his political career after a transformation from a 1990s hardline nationalist to the leader of the pro-European Serbian Progressive Party, has responded with a mixture of rhetoric, selective offers of dialogue and punitive measures. He has repeatedly labeled the student activists “terrorists” and accused Western powers of seeking his removal; he has offered talks but refused to call early elections, a central demand of the movement.
Authorities have sacked more than 100 university staff, including teachers, professors and deans, replacing them with officials seen as loyal to the president. Some faculties remain closed, while others have reopened under new administrations, according to protest organizers and university representatives.
The government’s security posture has also raised fears of a wider crackdown. Tanks have been seen moving through the capital, Belgrade, in preparation for a military parade scheduled for Sept. 20. Protesters and analysts express concern that an escalation around the parade could keep military forces on the streets beyond ceremonial duties.
Vucic’s tenure has been marked by a centralization of power and tight control over media and state institutions, developments that have long drawn criticism from domestic and international watchdogs. He has openly advocated for the closure or overhaul of remaining independent broadcasters, specifically naming outlets he says spread falsehoods about the protests. Independent media and rights groups counter that live coverage of demonstrations has been targeted and that attempts to silence dissent are imminent.
On the foreign policy front, Vucic has presented Serbia as pursuing a balancing act. He has maintained close ties with Russia and China and has declined to join Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, he has engaged with Western-aligned states, including a high-profile visit to Kyiv earlier this year and diplomatic outreach to the European Union, where Serbia has been a candidate for membership since 2012.
Vucic attended a summit on Sept. 1 with leaders from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, saying afterward that he had received their backing in handling domestic unrest. EU officials have warned that progress toward membership depends on democratic reforms, including stronger media freedoms, an independent judiciary and effective anti-corruption measures, but some critics say the bloc’s response has been muted.
European lawmakers and Serbian opposition groups argue that the EU has been reluctant to confront Vucic directly because of concerns that further destabilizing the country could reignite regional tensions rooted in the wars of the 1990s. That caution, they contend, has allowed democratic erosion to proceed without sufficiently stringent consequences.
Analysts say the protests have become more than a reaction to a single tragedy and are now a referendum on Vucic’s style of governance. Demonstrators demand transparent investigations into the Novi Sad collapse and broader institutional reforms, while authorities show little inclination to relinquish control.
With neither side showing signs of backing down, Serbia faces a deepening political crisis that carries the risk of prolonged unrest and potential violence. The coming weeks are likely to test both the resilience of the protest movement and the limits of state response, as domestic actors and international partners watch for signs of escalation or concessions.