Thousands of Serbians, mainly university students, took to the streets of Belgrade Saturday to mark one year since the start of large-scale protests against corruption in the country.
On Nov. 22, 2024, members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party violently clashed with a group of Belgrade University students in front of the School for Dramatic Arts, as they demonstrated over a deadly train station disaster that killed sixteen people.
On Saturday, protesters gathered in front of the school once again, voicing their dissatisfaction with the current Serbian government.
After observing sixteen minutes of silence for the victims of the Novi Sad train station disaster of Nov. 1, 2024, students led a march through the streets of the capital, holding banners that read: “Everyone join the blockades” and “A rotten government falls by itself.”
“We’re here together with the students, to mark one year since the violence enacted onto them by members of the Serbian Progressive Party,” Jovan Tamburic, a resident of Belgrade said.
“I think this is the end, these are the last jolts of the government, and I think it’s realistic that many things would change very soon,” Nela Antonovic, another protester from Belgrade, said.
Serbia has been gripped by yearlong street protests that have shaken president Aleksandar Vucic’s grip on power.
Protesters have accused his government of rampant corruption in state projects.
The protests started after a concrete canopy in a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad after renovation, killing sixteen people.
Protesters believe the victims died because government corruption led to sloppy renovation work at the station.
They have been demanding accountability for the disaster, and an early parliamentary election that they hope will oust Vucic's government.
AP video shot by Marko Drobnjakovic

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