‘Your hands are bloody’: What Serbia’s major anti-corruption protests mean for the country’s future

In the second largest city in Serbia, famous for its music festival EXIT, huge numbers of people arrived from all over the country to block bridges over the River Danube. Three bridges were blocked for three hours, exactly three months since this new wave of protests started here.

The protests started after the collapse of the concrete canopy in the newly refurbished train station in the city of Novi Sad, which killed 15 people and seriously injured two more. While the Serbian government claimed the canopy was never part of the reconstruction, the whistleblowers involved in the works on the railway station said the opposite. In response to the cover up, thousands of people started gathering daily to mark the tragedy by standing in silence at the exact time the canopy collapsed, initially for 14 minutes (at the time this was how many people had died) and eventually for 15 minutes.

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During one of these memorial events, students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade were attacked by members of the ruling party and in response, the students blocked their faculty. Gradually, most other faculties across the country, as well as high schools, joined them. So far, their demands, including publication of the entire documentation on the reconstruction of the railway station that would allow criminal persecution of those responsible, have not been met.

At first, the Serbian government hoped that spontaneous gatherings of people would eventually die out, as had many previous protests in the last 12 years. But what began as a student protest in Novi Sad and Belgrade quickly spread to other cities, led not by opposition parties, but by students, intellectuals, farmers and human rights activists. Even in smaller municipalities, once considered strongholds of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, people started organising and marching in defiance.

These bridges connect Novi Sad with southern parts of Serbia. In order to get to Novi Sad, you have to cross them. These were the bridges bombed by NATO in 1999 and slowly rebuilt over the years. One of them is called the Bridge of Freedom and the symbolism strikes a chord. The atmosphere on the protest was incredible. There was a strong sense of solidarity and defiance.

One student said: “I am not afraid. Government can do whatever they like, it won’t work because we are the majority. In the end everyone, even the police and army, will support us. All we want is for the institutions in our country to start working as they should.”

Protests in Serbia have been going strong for more than three months now. News about them has been filtering into the UK media slowly, picking up pace as an increased number of people join in.

But for people in Serbia, protest has been part of their lives for decades. Some older protesters in the streets have been part of so many protests in the last 30 years. In the early 90s there were protests against the civil war in former Yugoslavia, in 1996-97 against Belgrade election fraud. And in 2000 came the protests which led to the arrest of Slobodan Milošević and his extradition to the Hague.

More recently there have been further waves of protests, mainly triggered by corruption and lack of accountability for numerous tragedies that have happened in the last 12 years, alongside protests against lithium mining. As another protester noted: “We were here as students in 1996-97. Now we are here with our children. Whoever cursed us didn’t waste time.”

The protest has now spread to over 150 municipalities in the country. People here are united in support for students’ demands, and are requesting respect for the rule of law and functioning institutions.

Although the protest has been growing in size and people feel hope for the first time in many years, some have been marked by violent attacks. Most recently, two young female students were run over by the ruling party’s supporters deliberately speeding into them.

Just days ago, students were beaten with baseball bats for putting stickers on the bins in front of the ruling party’s local office. Police arrests and intimidation – by police, security services or just masked men claiming to be police – are also common.

Political activism is not easy in Serbia. This was documented recently in Amnesty International’s report A Digital Prison: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia.

However, despite the brutality and intimidation, people persist. Their resolve only deepens with each act of repression. And the voices grow louder and more unified with every threat. The protests now seem unstoppable – ignited under the powerful banner “Ruke su vam krvave”, which translates as: “Your hands are bloody.”

For years, Serbia seemed to be doing well. Foreign investors poured money into factories, tech parks and infrastructure projects. The government boasted about rising employment, new highways and GDP growth. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić projected an image of Serbia as a key regional player, a bridge between East and West, and gained political legitimacy from both Washington and Brussels.

To the outside world, as well as in Serbia, he appeared untouchable, a leader with international backing, too valuable to be seriously challenged. Inside Serbia, many former opposition leaders also aligned with the president, joining his government and further entrenching a regime that blended authoritarian power politics with the interests of influential local oligarchs.

Widespread corruption led to the erosion of the rule of law, with the judiciary becoming little more than a tool for those in power. Every election has been marred by irregularities. Most of the state media serve as an echo chamber for the ruling party. And people have been scared to raise concerns over corruption or campaign for a different political landscape.

In such a climate, Serbian society became deeply polarised. Every criticism of the government has been considered an attack against the state, the president or “Serbian-ness”. But everything changed after the tragedy in Novi Sad.

After three months of growing unrest, we approached this momentous event. Groups of students marched on foot from Belgrade, braving a two-day journey, greeted by locals along the way offering food and drinks, their resolve strengthening with every step. They marched towards Novi Sad, where, on 1 February, exactly three months after the tragedy, all three bridges in the city were occupied in a powerful show of unity and defiance.

It is increasingly difficult to predict how things will unfold from here. The protests, focused primarily on institutions rather than backing any single political party, have grown into a movement. But the opposition remains deeply fragmented, lacking a unified front or clear leadership. This unpredictability makes the outcome uncertain. But many of us have never felt so hopeful.

This generation of student protesters may be blocking bridges, but they are also making connections – between a canopy collapse and corruption, a terrible tragedy and the rule of law. They are Serbia’s bridges.

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