By Charlie Jean McKeown
Serbia has been captured by anti-corruption protests for four months, which are student-led, and have now gained an untameable momentum. On 1 November last year, the newly “renovated” concrete canopy of Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing 15 and severely injuring two more. The open secret of government corruption and cronyism has condemned President Aleksandar Vučić’s government in the public eye, and so these students demand that all documents related to the train station’s renovation be released. Suspicions of Vučić’s complicity in the disaster have only heightened with his adamant refusal to comply and the violently underhanded attempts to repress these protests through an increasingly autocratic state apparatus.
Mass movement explodes
Immediately following the canopy collapse, vigils were held, and on 22 November one of these was attacked by thugs. It was a failed attempt to dampen the scandal, and by the end of the month, a crowd of 200,000 participated in the weekly “Stop Serbia” traffic blockade. “Corruption Kills!” the slogan calls out, and at each such event at 11.52 – the moment of the collapse – a 15-minute silence is observed, one minute for each person killed. Student protests now enjoy support from 64% of the population according to a CRTA survey, and general strikes have been called by the unions of teachers, power workers and lawyers. Students travelled on foot multiple times between cities to demonstrate, and each time were met with loud celebrations from local residents.
The far-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) formed the government now facing this mass solidarity. Ironically, they came to power in 2012 on an anti-corruption platform directed against their predecessors but immediately exploited the state’s broken bureaucracy. The SNS tightened control over media and have made crony construction deals to secure their wealth. Their re-election in 2023 sparked protests and accusations of election fraud, which Freedom House described as ‘organised voter migration, vote buying, and abuse of public resources.’ In the case of the canopy collapse, Vučić’s government partnered with a Chinese consortium as part of China’s notoriously corrupt Belt in Road initiative to develop Serbia’s railways – including Novi Sad station – at the staggering cost of €65 million, no doubt to cover both construction and corruption costs.
Autocratic regime
Yet, these protests have arisen not only from public frustration, but also grassroots experience. Aside from the re-election protests, there had already been recent protests staged over the renewed development of lithium mines, and mass shootings had triggered the Serbia Against Violence movement. Activists and student organisers have learnt to manage their demonstrations efficiently and democratically against the increasingly autocratic regime it opposes and is careful to take precautions against state interference. Its participants are further determined by the lack of any reliable parliamentary alternative – the opposition parties are united only against the SNS, and lack any internal coherence themselves.
Since the students have not buckled, increasingly violent and coercive attempts have been made to curtail their protests. Multiple times, cars have been driven directly into crowds, and in one instance, the driver was an on-duty police officer – use of force and undercover police have been commonplace. In response, farmers have driven convoys of tractors into the cities and used them to establish protective barriers for the protestors. The Serbian Intelligence Agency (BIA) has telephoned many organisers to make thinly veiled threats. The private information of many activist students has been opened to the public in a serious breach of privacy laws, and the national broadcaster, RTS, has massively underreported on the protests. Vučić has also attempted to exploit nationalist divisions, levelling accusations of subversion against visiting Croatians and the Croatian intelligence service, but these scapegoating attempts have been consistently condemned.
Despite all this and more, Vučić’s government is haemorrhaging ministers, with Prime Minister Miloš Vučević announcing his resignation in late January. Construction minister Goran Vesić resigned in November; his predecessor, Tomislav Momirović, resigned as minister of trade soon after. Damir Zobenica resigned over a leaked voice recording calling for attacks on the protestors. Yet more resignations have followed. On 4 March, smoke bombs were even thrown in the Serbian parliament, disrupting the session in support of the protests. Desperate attempts to salvage the situation have included an SNS counter rally on 15 February which, according to the trade union organisation, Nezavisnost, public sector workers were pressured into attending. Vučić has declared his openness to another general election. Still, given his party’s fraudulent reputation, the opposition has insisted that an intermittent government must first be implemented, something Vučić has flatly denounced.
Bring down this government
Critical to defeating this rotten capitalist government is mobilising the power of the working class in Serbia. Physicists and teachers have taken strike action to support the movement, and there was talk of bringing out the decisive section of energy workers. A one-day general strike should be organised, as was done in Greece recently, linked to more sustained plan for generalised action. Committees of resistance against the government should be organised in workplaces and communities, uniting with the protest movement and fighting to replace Vučić and his cronies with a workers’ government that takes the key wealth and resources from the hands of its capitalist elite. Such a movement for genuine, democratic and socialist change could reach out to workers across the Balkans and transform the region, ending poverty and inequality for good.
