Thousands protest in Serbia as Vucic faces election pressure
Thousands packed Kraljevo after Aleksandar Vucic said he would step down, but protesters said they still doubt he will surrender real power.
Thousands of protesters filled the Serbian city of Kraljevo on Sunday, keeping pressure on President Aleksandar Vucic a day after he said he would step down within weeks to open the way for early presidential and parliamentary elections. The rally came in a heat wave, with demonstrators waving Serbian flags and carrying banners reading “Students are winning” as the crowd stayed peaceful but defiant.
The protest movement has been building since 1 November 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station in Serbia’s second-largest city and killed 16 people. The collapse exposed weak oversight, opaque infrastructure deals and corruption, especially because the station reconstruction was tied to the Belgrade-Budapest high-speed rail project. Vucic has denied the corruption allegations.
Students have led the campaign. They have called for full publication of the documentation tied to the Novi Sad reconstruction, accountability for attacks on students and professors, dropping charges against detained protesters and a 20% increase in funding for state universities. A large rally in Novi Sad on 20 June 2026 had already demanded snap elections and marked the deaths from the 2024 collapse.
“I cannot imagine that he will step down and leave power to someone else,” protester Marko Djokic said. Vucic could try to become prime minister while placing an ally in the presidency, preserving influence even after formally leaving the top post. Professor Jelena Danicic said: “This is not just a political struggle but a fight between good and evil.”
Serbia remains a candidate for European Union membership, even as it keeps ties with Russia and China, and Brussels has pressed Belgrade on press freedom, judicial independence and the use of force against peaceful protesters. The European Parliament’s 7 May 2025 resolution urged Serbia to accelerate reforms on media freedom, judicial independence and fundamental rights, while the European Commission’s Serbia Report 2025, published on 4 November 2025, found the country remained on the EU path but needed credible reforms.
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