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Students in Serbia protest differently, with cheers and tears in their eyes, they set off on bicycles towards Strasbourg
2025-04-04 14:26:46 / BOTA
With cheers and tears in their eyes, dozens of students from Novi Sad have embarked on a two-week bicycle journey to Strasbourg, where they want to draw the EU's attention to their fight against corruption in Serbia.
Serbia has been gripped by a wave of nationwide protests against corruption at the highest levels of institutions for weeks. The wave of protests was triggered by the collapse of a concrete roof at the Novi Sad train station last November (2024), which resulted in the deaths of 16 people.
Public outrage over the tragedy in Novi Sad is about the responsibility for this disaster falling on leading figures, who are not doing enough against corruption and who have not taken care of proper supervision of construction projects.
Students have been massively engaged in protests with dedication, constantly finding peaceful but intense forms of protest to raise awareness about the problems. The bicycle tour to Strasbourg aims to raise awareness of the EU about Serbia's problems.
Students: The EU should do more
With helmets on their heads and fluorescent jackets and wrapped in the Serbian flag, about 80 students started cycling from the University of Novi Sad campus to their destination 1,800km away to the west. During the journey, the students will pass through several EU metropolises, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Munich, where they want to raise awareness not only in Europe but also among the Serbian diaspora in these countries. The students were greeted by the residents of Novi Sad with the words pumpaj, pumpaj, one of the protest slogans (pompoje).
Serbia is a candidate country for membership in the European Union and Brussels has urged it to take measures to promote media freedom, fight corruption and reform the electoral system. But some protesters believe that Europe is not taking the right stance and is being too soft on the government in Belgrade.
Protest tour also within Serbia
Students and protesting citizens have been conducting a walking tour within the country, walking for days in mid-March towards the Serbian capital. Dozens of protests and incidents have occurred during the week alone. President Aleksandar Vučić and his government are not giving up easily so far. He says that the protests have come to an end, while the students say that this is for them to decide, not the president.
The protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vukčević. The students say that the protests will not stop and that their end will not come when the president says so, but when they say that the conditions have been met. /DW
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