Belgrade rally: hundreds of thousands of students rally before vote

On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Slavija Square in central Belgrade and on neighboring streets as the student movement held its final rally before the Oct. 25 parliamentary election. The crowd waved flags and chanted “Victory,” in high spirits after months of protests against the government of Aleksandar Vučić.

The protests began in November 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. In Serbia the tragedy was seen as a symbol of corruption and negligence. Critics linked the flawed reconstruction of the station to the president, who was closely tied to the project, BBC recalls.

Students have nearly caught up with the government

Support for the student movement has grown. According to polls, its list is almost level with the “Serbia Unified” list, whose main force is Vučić's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party. This is happening despite the ruling populists' tight grip on the main media and all of the country's institutions.

Vučić held his own final campaign rally on Thursday in front of several thousand people in a sports hall in another part of the city. He said he expects his party to win by a margin of several hundred thousand votes, then spoke on the radio and was due to appear on state broadcaster RTS in the evening.

Concerns over a fair vote

Several smaller parties are also running, but observers say the referendum-like showdown between Vučić and the students could push most of the others below the 3% threshold for entering the 250-seat parliament.

International observers and the European Union have voiced concern about the safety and fairness of the vote, which is overshadowed by near-total state control of the media, deep divisions in society, and reports of surveillance of and cyberattacks on activists. Critics accuse Vučić of large-scale corruption, ties to organized crime and suppression of democratic freedoms, above all media freedom; he denies this. The early election comes after more than a year and a half of antigovernment protests.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz