(30 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade, Serbia – 30 May 2025
1. Students holding banner reading (Serbian): “We want elections!”
2. Various of people at the protest, flags in the background
3. Pan of protesters
4. Various of protesters marching
5. Students with Serbian flag
5. Tilt down from government building to protesters
STORYLINE:
Thousands of people rallied on Friday in Serbia’s capital demanding an early election following seven months of massive anti-corruption protests that have rattled the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic.
The protest in Belgrade was organized by Serbia’s university students who have been a key force behind the nationwide demonstrations triggered by a collapse on Nov. 1 of a concrete train station canopy in the country’s north that killed 16 people.
Many people in Serbia believe that the deadly crash was the result of flawed renovation work on the station building fueled by rampant government corruption in major infrastructure projects with Chinese state companies.
Protesting university students have been demanding accountability for the crash and the rule of law in Serbia, a Balkan nation that is formally seeking European Union entry but where the ruling populists are accused of clamping down on democratic freedoms.
After months-long protests drawing hundreds of thousands of people, the student movement has demanded that early parliamentary elections be held, arguing that the current government cannot meet their initial demands for justice for the crash victims.
No one has been sentenced in connection with the tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Authorities have indicted over a dozen people but doubts prevail that the proceedings would uncover the alleged corruption web behind the crash.
A huge, noisy column of protesters in Belgrade marched by the state prosecutor’s offices before reaching the government building.
They held a banner urging the snap vote at the front.
Vucic, whom critics accuse of an increasingly authoritarian rule despite the proclaimed EU bid, has dismissed the student demand for an immediate snap vote.
Vucic’s government has stepped up pressure on the protesting students and Serbia’s universities, claiming without proof that they were instructed by foreign powers to stage a revolution in the country.
AP video shot by: Ivana Bzganovic
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