On 1 November 2024, the concrete canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad collapsed. Sixteen people were killed. Almost two years later, the disaster has produced one of the most remarkable youth movements in Europe, and on Sunday 25 October it faces its biggest test: an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first demands were about justice. Students asked for the publication of documents on the station\u2019s reconstruction, the prosecution of those who attacked students commemorating the victims, the dropping of charges against arrested students, and more funding for higher education. They blocked their universities, and the protests spread across the country and involved people from every generation. The movement is leaderless: decisions are taken in student assemblies, in faculties around Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state did not respond with dialogue. In September 2025, hundreds of police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters around the Novi Sad university campus. Observers describe a presidency marked by restrictions on media freedom, violent attacks on journalists and activists, and widespread corruption that has enriched a small circle. President Vu\u010di\u0107 accused the students of acting on Western orders to destroy Serbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time the protests forced a political answer. Serbia goes to the polls in an early parliamentary election, called after almost two years of sustained protest. President Vu\u010di\u0107 resigned in September to run for prime minister, and a presidential election will follow by the end of December. The students entered the race as the Student List, with 250 candidates chosen by students involved in the movement. They campaign under the slogan \u201cSerbia or Mafia\u201d, pointing to corruption, para-police gangs, and links between the state and organised crime. Instead of relying on big rallies alone, they went door to door: 170,000 households in 20 days, according to the activists themselves. Their programme asks for what should be guaranteed in any democracy: media that can speak freely, courts that answer to no one in power, and a law that asks where powerful people got their money from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We stand with the young people of Serbia, who spent two years on the streets and in assemblies, asking for accountability and a state that is not for sale. We stand against repression by the state and the police. Serbia\u2019s students are showing what a generation can do when it organises and refuses to give up.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 1 November 2024, the concrete canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad collapsed. Sixteen people were killed. Almost two years later, the disaster…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,65],"class_list":["post-31286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-alternatives","tag-democracy-projects","tag-european-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n