Serbian Students Clean Up Belgrade After Election Victory

Students in Belgrade have taken to the streets with paint rollers and brushes to clean up their city following a youth-led movement's electoral victory. The effort aims to remove anti-student graffiti that appeared on buildings during the recent election campaign.

The cleanup began shortly after the Students' List movement's success in elections that unseated President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party after 14 years in power. Activists and residents across Serbia have organized self-initiated cleanup efforts.

Dozens of students from three high schools in central Belgrade participated in the effort. "We had this desire to make not only our country better, but also the city we live in," said Lea Radic, 18, a student at Belgrade's Third High School. "People wanted to do something immediately, not in 10 days, not in a month, but on the very first day."

Radic, who heads her school's student assembly, coordinated the action with students from two other schools. "We all determined our zones," she explained, adding that the goal is to "do good deeds and make our surroundings nicer."

The student movement's victory followed two years of protests against alleged government corruption. Vucic and his supporters had previously labeled students as traitors and foreign mercenaries, and scores were reportedly detained and beaten during protests.

Following Vucic's electoral defeat, residents first cleared a central park that had been occupied by his loyalists. Volunteers then painted over graffiti in an underground passage, with other parts of Belgrade and various towns adopting similar cleanup actions.

"Our aim and motive has been to paint over the hate speech," said 17-year-old Kosta Jovanovic. "We believe that our younger students, as they go to school every day, are exposed to a lot of murals, slogans and sentences that are insulting and that are not good for them."

Residents have expressed enthusiasm for the students' initiative. "I am completely euphoric," said Leta Lalevic, in her 60s. "This is so beautiful that it makes me want to cry."