Hundreds of Serbian students began a 75-kilometer march from Belgrade to the northern city of Novi Sad on Thursday. The students will block the city's bridges there to mark the third anniversary of the collapse of a concrete roof at a train station that killed 15 people. The students blame the government, saying the roof collapsed because it was poorly constructed due to corruption and mismanagement. Student protests in Serbia have become an issue that reflects broader popular dissatisfaction with President Vučić's populist rule.
The student protests are the largest in years in Serbia, seriously challenging the rule of populist President Aleksandar Vučić for the first time.
"This march is our way of offering support to our colleagues from Novi Sad. We also want to show how persistent we are and that we do not plan to stop until our demands are met," said Tatjana Gogic, a biology student.
Weeks of protests have already forced the resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vučević this week and other concessions from a government that is not used to making concessions.
Prime Minister Vučević's resignation is likely to lead to early parliamentary elections. The resignation, which would mean the fall of the entire cabinet, must be confirmed by Serbia's parliament, which has 30 days to elect a new government or call early elections.
Vasilije Milanovic, a student at the Faculty of Technical Engineering in Belgrade, said that students are demanding "justice and freedom of thought."
"The march (towards Novi Sad) is another way to show how determined we are and that we will not stop until the end," added student Milanovic.
The tragedy in Novi Sad, where 15 people lost their lives on November 1 after the roof collapsed at a train station, has become an issue that reflects broader popular dissatisfaction with President Vučić's populist governance.
"We should not tolerate this chaotic society we live in now, this kind of despotism where one man makes decisions for all of us. We have not agreed to this, a country should not function like this," says actor Dušan Pavlović.
The increasingly authoritarian President Vučić exercises a firm control over all state institutions and the main media in Serbia, while facing accusations of rolling back democracy.
Many in Serbia believe that the concrete roof at the Novi Sad train station collapsed due to poor workmanship and supervision during reconstruction as a result of government corruption in large infrastructure projects with Chinese state-owned companies./ VOA
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