Serbia’s historic protests – why are hundreds of thousands taking to the streets

The 15 March protest in Serbia that made global headlines, was one of the largest gatherings in the history of Serbia. It was a grassroots student-led protest that united wider society exposing a deeply corrupt system built by the Serbian Progressive Party, which has ruled for 13 years. In a remarkably new, inspiring, creative, and innovative way, the students successfully challenged the regime forcing it into crisis mode for months and they inspired hundreds of thousands [of citizens] to come to the streets. 

You won’t find student leaders here. Every time students appear on TV, it’s someone new. On some shows, they don’t even share their names – they’re just students. This makes it difficult for the government to single out a person to target, because there’s no one leader, no fixed spokesperson.

Living in Serbia often means feeling unmotivated and drained, as the injustices of this system wear you down daily. The students managed to restore faith and hope in a better future for all of us. 

I have been to many protests over the last eight or nine years, but I have never seen a movement as well-communicated and organised as this one. It seems that such success has been inspiring internationally, with Serbian students receiving requests to share their experiences with students from North Macedonia and Turkey.

On 15 March, they had stewards in place, as well as a system of signals including for when the government would place hooligans in the crowd to provoke chaos, and incite violence. Given the massive crowds, mobile data often didn’t work, so the stewards used  old-school communication methods —one steward running to another to pass messages, ensuring information spreads quickly.

Despite facing immense pressure and being a diverse group, the students have remained united and steadfast in their four demands, which essentially address corruption. The government is obviously struggling. For example, publicising documentation [among the four demands] related to the reconstructions in Novi Sad—where the train station entrance canopy collapsed, killing 16 people—would completely expose them.

There are many other protests emerging across the country, organised by different groups of citizens on different social topics. But they always stress that ultimately they are on the street to support the four demands of the students.

At the same time the inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric of the country’s highest officials has encouraged many to verbally and physically attack students—many of these cases have even been referred to as attempted murder. On 15 March, top state officials incited violence, alongside the involvement of hooligans protected by police forces near the protest location. That day protesters were hit with a so-far unidentified sonic weapon which caused injuries and panic. Civil society has so far collected over 4,000 witness testimonies on this attack.

Student-led movement reframing itself from the term “civil society”

This is a really complex terrain. Officially, civil society organisations are not involved [in the protests]. Students have deliberately distanced themselves from activists and NGOs because the government’s propaganda machine has worked for years to demonise civil society. If students are seen as being openly aligned with NGOs, they are immediately attacked by the tabloids to discredit them in the eyes of the public. 

Civil society activists are part of the protest as participants and offer expertise to students in the background. For example, civil society offers free legal aid and help, or safety advice.

That campaign against civil society and activism in general has been going on for years. But it has intensified significantly since the ruling party, the Serbian Progressive Party, has been completing the process of full state capture. And it’s been more and more intense every year. We have been called “foreign agents,” “foreign mercenaries,” “working for foreign powers and governments to overthrow the government,” “working non-transparently,” and “not reporting to our donors” –  all of which is untrue. But regular citizens who only have the chance to watch government media, they believe it because it’s the only information they get.

The US government’s anti-NGO rhetoric and statements regarding USAID have served as an additional excuse for a biased judiciary to exert pressure on civil society. Of course, excuses have always existed, but invoking the world’s most powerful figures, such as Trump and Musk, carries particular weight.

Tactics and trends to intimidate civil society and the protest movement

The government is systematically misusing legislation to target activists who criticise its actions, taking revenge against those who take to the streets. We saw something like that happen in Georgia, and we see it emerging here too. If the protests were to suddenly stop, I believe the government would go for a full crackdown.

The tactics include breaches of privacy, private data leaks, surveillance, trumped-up charges, false accusations, prosecution, and detention. The list is too long. We are working to record and connect these cases with SLAPPs, as we have seen an increase since last summer’s environmental protests. There’s an evident increase in misuse of provisions in the Criminal Code and freedom of assembly laws. For example, spontaneous assemblies—protected by law—are now being criminalised if someone merely posts about them on social media. Activists are charged with inciting a violent change of constitutional order for simply speaking about regime change.

We’ve also documented cases of students and activists being arrested on politically motivated charges. The former prime minister even filed criminal complaints against students for “misleading the public” after they were attacked by unidentified men and spoke about it. 

We were not surprised to see the recent report by Amnesty International on surveillance [and the suppression of civil society in Serbia], which was, of course, completely rejected by the government without any investigation into it. And then there’s the recent investigation into Pegasus spyware targeting Balkan Investigative Reporting Network journalists. The report was widely discussed in society, and now everyone knows that if the police detain you and ask you to hand over your phone, the chances are 100% that they’ll try to install something.

[On 25 February, several CSOs, including Civic Initiatives, were raided by authorities without a search warrant.] This was not a legal search procedure but rather an abuse of the criminal process, where the police misused their emergency powers—despite there being no urgency. Numerous irregularities were observed.

Some of my colleagues were on the premises when the police came. It’s not easy to watch heavily armed police officers raiding your office as if you’ve done something wrong, while you did everything right.

Following the protest on 15 March, our colleague, a lawyer from YUCOM, a Human Rights House Belgrade member organisation, who arrived at the police station to see her client, who was arrested at the protest, was physically attacked by a police officer on duty.

Civic Initiative’s Executive Director, Maja Stojanović, has been repeatedly targeted because of her critical stance against the ruling party and her support for the protests. She has faced continuous smear campaigns, including threats to her family and husband, false cases and investigations for money laundering and financing of terrorism. Currently, we don’t have any information on the proceedings that the Authority for the Fight Against Money Laundering initiated against her, and four other activists. 

Speaking of new tactics: the authorities can take legal action [against an activist] and then just leave the proceedings hanging, leaving [an innocent] person in constant fear that the authorities might do something tomorrow. 

Many activists are aware that there is a folder with their name somewhere in the prosecutor’s office, just waiting to be opened again. 

US funding cuts pushing those in need to the margins

On top of sustaining the ongoing crackdown on civil society, different organisations have been affected in different ways and to varying degrees by the suspension of financial assistance for their activities by USAID, as well as by the broader trend of grant withdrawals from other providers. Left stranded are all those people who have been pushed to the margins by the system and who would be entirely neglected if not for the organisations that care for them. 

Our states, under these regimes, will never see civil society as a network of dedicated individuals who know what is happening on the ground. Instead, we will always be perceived as mere critics who stand in the way, challenging the carefully crafted image of a government that is supposed to care for the people—but fails to do so. 

Instead of being able to operate freely, civil society is constantly forced into survival mode.

Lack of EU support despite Serbia’s candidate status and suspension of cooperation between Serbian CSO’s and authorities

[The Serbian authorities] have completely lost our trust.

It has become meaningless to sit at the table with institutions that nominally call for dialogue and discussion but then actively participate in or remain silent about the open targeting of civil society. [Civil society organisations] have been reduced to mere indicators and checkboxes in action plans and reports to the European Union. Amid this absurdity, part of civil society has decided to no longer take part in these [performative] conversations. However, this does not mean we stop working. We will continue to monitor how laws and policies are adopted and implemented, using consultations and public debates to highlight harmful solutions. [CSOs] are simply no longer wasting time on meetings where we serve only as decoration.

At the same time, unfortunately, we have not observed any change in the European Commission’s messages. They remain very general, no different from the statements that have been issued for years. Adding to the disappointment are meetings with the president, as if it were business as usual. That’s why the public support for the EU is at its lowest historic levels. 

Continuous calls for dialogue by the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, despite the clear position of CSOs and current circumstances, provide a basis for criticism from our side.

I [do not want] to be forced by the international community, for example, the EU, to sit at a table with people who will attack me the next day, as if nothing happened.

We cannot have negotiations on human rights, on corruption. What’s there to talk about? Should we compromise on half the corruption?

As one of the Serbian students said during an interview: “Our demands are clear, and there is no room for negotiation—we have stated that we expect institutions to do their job. When it comes to respecting the law, there are no negotiations or settlements.”

On the other hand, support has come from some Members of the European Parliament, who have used the opportunity to speak publicly and openly in favour of the demands of the protests.

On April 3, a group of students embarked on a bicycle journey to Strasbourg to raise international awareness about the events in Serbia and the lack of response from responsible institutions. Members of the European Parliament have said they are waiting for them. 

Top photo via protesti.pics