Tens of thousands of people gathered in the Serbian capital on Saturday at the call of students for a nationwide rally against the deadly train station awning collapse that killed 15, marking the peak of months-long protests.
Near-daily demonstrations since November last year, sparked by tragedy, have challenged President Aleksandar Vučić like never before in his 13 years in office.
Since then, students have been blocking their faculties, demanding justice for the victims of the awning collapse at the Novi Sad railway station, where 15 people died and several people were injured, of which two remain critical.
Many in Serbia blamed the incident on widespread corruption, negligence, and disregard for construction safety regulations, demanding accountability.
Students argue that their demands have still not been met, even after four months.
They continue to demand that all documentation related to the reconstruction be published and that those responsible be punished. Although the president and the government, led by Vučić's SNS, have released some documents over the past months, the demonstrators maintain that not all of it was made public.
Saturday's rally, called “15 for 15,” was named in reference to both the protest date and the number of people killed in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024. In the evening, the crowd observed a 15-minute silence to honour the victims.
Ahead of the demonstration, Vučić repeatedly warned of supposed plans for unrest, threatening arrests and severe sentences for any incidents.
One protester, Dejan Simić, said he was at the Belgrade protest "for a more democratic Serbia," while another said, "This is just the beginning of the end, a process that I hope will conclude soon."
The protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vučević in late January, but the students believe that their demands have still not been met, which is why they are not giving up on blocking their faculties, putting the entire academic year in Serbia in question.
