Thousands rally in Belgrade demanding snap elections, clashes erupt with police

Tens of thousands of protesters streamed into central Belgrade on Saturday, turning the Serbian capital into the latest test of whether a student-led uprising can evolve from public anger into a lasting challenge to state power. Many wore T-shirts and carried banners bearing the slogan “Students win,” while others chanted “We want elections!” and held signs accusing President Aleksandar Vucic of corruption.

The rally was organized by university students demanding snap parliamentary elections and an end to more than a decade of rule by Vucic. Police said the crowd numbered more than 34,000, while accounts from the ground described one of the largest anti-government gatherings in recent months. The size and discipline of the crowd underscored how far Serbia’s university movement has expanded since it first emerged after the collapse of a newly renovated concrete canopy at Novi Sad’s railway station on November 1, 2024, an accident that killed 16 people and triggered national anger over corruption and negligence.

What began as protest over a deadly infrastructure failure has become a broader political challenge. The movement has kept up pressure for nearly eight months, and in some framings longer, despite repeated attempts to blunt it. Earlier rail disruptions were aimed at slowing travel to the capital ahead of the rally, but they did not stop demonstrators from gathering in force.

The confrontation escalated after the main rally. Serbian police fired teargas in central Belgrade and riot police clashed with protesters as some demonstrators threw flares, rocks and bottles at police barricades. The scenes marked a sharper turn in the standoff between a well-organized student movement and a government increasingly willing to answer it with force. Images from the protest also showed banners reading “The students are winning,” a sign that the movement is trying to frame itself not as a brief outburst but as an organized political campaign.

The showdown carries implications beyond one night in Belgrade. Vucic has already faced some of the biggest protests in Serbia in years, including earlier rallies in Novi Sad and Belgrade that drew as many as 100,000 people in some accounts. Saturday’s clash suggested the protest movement still has momentum, even after Vucic moved to offer an early election in the fall. For a government accused by opponents of democratic backsliding, the question is no longer whether people will fill the streets, but whether the opposition can convert that street power into durable leverage over Serbia’s state institutions.