Fireworks and flares lit up the evening sky as Serbia's protesting students arrived Friday in a southern city on the eve of a huge rally this weekend, part of a massive anti-graft movement challenging the Balkan country's populist government.
University students in Serbia are leading nationwide protests that started after a deadly collapse of a train station canopy in November that killed 15 people and critics blamed on government corruption.
Almost daily protests since November have been the biggest gatherings in years, drawing tens of thousands of people and rattling President Aleksandar Vucic's firm grip on power.
Vucic has described the protests as a Western-orchestrated attempt to oust him from power. Earlier on Friday he declared that “Serbia has been attacked” but that “your colored revolution is over, there will be no revolution.”
Thousands in Nis, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital Belgrade, came out to greet the students who had walked there for several days in groups that set off from various towns in the country.
“I feel fabulous although we walked for 30 kilometers (18 miles) today and another 30 (kilometers) uphill yesterday,” said Nikola Djurdjanovic, who is from the eastern town of Knjazevac.
Predrag Savic, from Svrljig, in southern Serbia, added that “I expect changes to happen.”
Protesting s tudent marches have become a rallying force in Serbia's rural areas, which are traditionally pro-government. Everywhere students showed up people greeted them with food and refreshments, while many cried and kissed them.
The protest rally in Nis on Saturday will mark four months since the concrete canopy at the central train station in the northern city of Novi Sad crashed down on Nov. 1 without warning on the people walking or sitting below.
The rally is set to last 18 hours with tens of thousands of people coming in from all over the country. Similar gatherings previously were held in Novi Sad and in the central city of Kragujevac.
The station building in Novi Sad had been renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure work with Chinese state companies. Many in Serbia believe the work on the building was sloppy and disregarded construction safety rules because of widespread corruption.
