site.btaSerbian Students Gear Up for Snap Parliamentary Elections

Serbian students who led the country’s largest anti-government protests in decades have announced that they are gearing up for snap parliamentary elections, N1 reported on Tuesday.

Protests have been held in Serbia for more than a year. They were triggered by a tragedy in Novi Sad where 16 people were killed and one was seriously injured in a rail station canopy collapse on November 1, 2024.

The protests were led by students who blocked more than 60 faculties across the country and grew into mass rallies. Protesters accuse the authorities of corruption and nepotism and want those responsible to face political and criminal accountability.

On Monday, students launched a ten-day door-to-door campaign as part of which they will talk to citizens across Serbia.  

"This is literally direct communication with people, where we try to cut through the media blackout and propaganda as much as possible," Jelena Kontic, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, told N1.

Under the students’ strategy, the campaign serves as a prelude to a new large protest on December 28, when they will answer questions from citizens.

At that protest, the students will also collect signatures to call snap parliamentary elections, Andjela Prodanovic, a student at the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, told N1.

"That day will be a turning point in the students’ actions. It will not be an ordinary protest, but a people’s uprising," Prodanovic said.

She added that it mattered not only who would be invited to join the candidate list that the students said they would back, but also what the governing programme would be. She noted that the programme was being drafted in detail.

On May 5, students involved in the blockade of more than 60 faculties first called for snap parliamentary elections. They said they would back respected public figures to run for seats in the Serbian Parliament but added that they would not take part in the vote directly.