Demonstrators Gather in Belgrade to Protest Against Serbian Government

On Thursday, hundreds of protesters gathered in Belgrade outside Serbia’s state television headquarters to showcase their discontent.

The demonstration was led by university students upset over RTS television broadcasting President Aleksandar Vucic’s claims that protesters were funded by the West.

More than 40 university faculties in Serbia have suspended classes in light of the ongoing protests.

Protesters, displaying sacks supposedly filled with money, protested outside the downtown RTS station in Belgrade, the country’s capital.

Accusations have been made against the station for promoting a nationalist pro-government stance for years.

The protest forms part of broader demonstrations that stemmed from the collapse of a concrete canopy in Novi Sad, resulting in 15 fatalities.

The collapse is believed by many in the Balkan nation to be a result of widespread corruption leading to substandard renovation work on the Novi Sad station building.

This renovation is part of a larger agreement involving Chinese-backed companies engaged in various infrastructure projects across the nation.

The canopy collapse ignited broader dissatisfaction directed at what some view as Vucic’s authoritarian rule.

Protests have been ongoing since November 1 in Novi Sad, Belgrade, and other cities, at times escalating into violence.

During a Wednesday news conference, Vucic declared that the Novi Sad railway building renovation documents would be publicly disclosed, meeting the students’ demands.

An investigation launched by prosecutors led to the arrest of 13 individuals in connection to the collapse, though a government minister was released, sparking suspicions of governmental influence over law enforcement and the judiciary.

Simultaneously, as the president addressed the public, hundreds of students blew whistles and horns outside his official residence in Belgrade, audibly heard during the live television broadcast of his speech.

The students are adamant about seeing the perpetrators who confronted protesters brought to justice.

“We came to return the money,” one student told the crowd as they symbolically left bags of fake money outside the television building.

“You can hand them [bags] to the president and tell him that we demand a public apology,” they added.

Vucic, who has faced previous anti-government demonstrations, has acquiesced to the protesters’ demands for the first time.

“We will release all available documentation to the public tomorrow,” Vucic stated.

He specified that those arrested during protests were freed, and he vowed to pardon any convicted individuals following due legal procedures.

“For those people hearing these sounds, it’s from around 600 of them… I hold them in high regard and respect,” Vucic expressed in the live TV broadcast.

Student activist Irina Sekulic affirmed that the daily protests will persist until the authorities apprehend the agitators involved in clashes with students.

“We will not give up,” Sekulic asserted.

Savo Manojlovic, leader of the Kreni-Promeni (Move-Change) opposition movement, criticized Vucic’s handling of the disaster-related documents.

“It’s shameful that the documentation… is not with the prosecutors but with the President. This marks a collapse of the state,” he criticized on X.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.