What are being widely reported as Serbia’s largest ever protests have gripped various districts of Belgrade over the weekend, which saw well over 100,000 thousand people descend on the capital on Saturday.
BBC for exampled observed, “While the government put attendance at 107,000 across Belgrade, an independent monitor said 325,000 – if not more – had gathered, making it Serbia’s largest protest ever.”
The people filling the streets are calling for an end to the more than decade-long governance of the Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vučić, following a deadly tragedy last November which many believe was aided by corruption and corner-cutting.
Fifteen bystanders were killed when a concrete concrete canopy of the main railway station in Novi Sad collapsed on top of bystanders who had been walking underneath at the time.
Protesters are blaming the Progressive Party of Vucic, and already the resignations of several senior officials have resulted, as well as at times explosive shouting matches and even violent scuffles among lawmakers in parliament.
Saturday’s protest was called the “15th for 15” protest, given it took place on March 15. It looked to be largely peaceful, given only 22 people were arrested while 56 others were injured, according to Serbian national media.
Belgrade.
Crazy. pic.twitter.com/27ErgKZM9A— Stevanović Vladimir (@VladimirStev) March 15, 2025
Young people and students are a huge component to the demonstrations, which has also been jointed by lawyers, teachers, and even farmers.
“We just want a country that works,” one law student interviewed by BBC commented. “We want institutions that do their jobs properly. We don’t care what party is in power. But we need a country that works, not one where you don’t get justice for more than four months.”
For a nation of only about 6.6 million people, the sheer size of the crowds in the streets have been impressive.
I’ve never been more proud of my country and my people 🥹
– ~6M people in Serbia.
– ~800k people protesting.
– 0 crimes, 0 fights, 0 broken shit.
– Biggest protests in Serbian history.
– One of the biggest protests in Europe.I salute you, fellow students 🫡 pic.twitter.com/oSjsS4HfiJ
— cap / thecap.eth (d/acc) (@TheCapHimself) March 15, 2025
There’s an international dynamic at play as well, as Vucic is often described in Western media as friendly to Putin.
Serbia remains another one of those East-West fault line countries in which Europe and NATO would like to see a government which moves away from generally warm relations with Russia Putin. Some analysts have warned the country is ripe for a West-backed ‘color revolution’. But by and large the population is still anti-NATO, given their memories of the brutal bombing campaign of 1999 led by US warplanes under Clinton
Tyler Durden
Sun, 03/16/2025 – 12:15
