Serbia: Mass protests continue despite government repression
Topic
Country/Region
25 March 2025
Almost 140 organisations from across Europe and beyond have expressed their solidarity with people in Serbia protesting against the government. An open letter condemns the Serbian government’s “effort to silence critical voices and suppress fundamental freedoms,” in response to nationwide protests sparked by the collapse of a train station. Statewatch has signed the letter.
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Image: Dejan Krsmanovic, CC BY 2.0
Train station collapse in Novi Sad
Following the tragic collapse of the train station in the city of Novi Sad on 1 November 2024, which has now claimed the lives of 16 people, a wave of student-led mass protests have swept Serbia.
Many people lay the blame for the Novi Sad tragedy at the feet of the government, due to “poor renovation work fuelled by government corruption,” the open letter notes. The government denies responsibility.
The protests in response to this are the largest mobilization in decades. There have been marches and demonstrations in at least 245 towns and cities. The largest demonstrations have seen up to 100,000 people take part.
While spearheaded by students, the protests boast support from across a broad cross-section of social demographics.
Government repression of protests
The Serbian government has retaliated against the protests with a “rapid escalation of restrictions, attacks, and repression,” the letter notes.
It condemns an “illegal police raid on five leading non-governmental organisations” by the Serbian state. This, it says, indicates “crackdown on organisations that directly empower citizens to participate in public life and hold authorities accountable.”
This is just one example of the several incidents of state violence against citizens and civil society highlighted in the letter. However, the letter highlights that “these attacks are not new.”
It notes that “for over a decade, Serbia’s political leadership has steered the country away from democratic values and the commitments required for EU integration.”
Foreign interests in Serbia
The Serbian government justifies this repression by accusing those who support the mass movement of “acting on behalf of foreign interests,” and further subjecting them to “threats, surveillance, police interrogations and losing their job.”
It appears, however, that the Serbian government has foreign interests of its own. “I am very grateful to Russia's special services, which always support us in our fight against colour revolutions, primarily with information," said Serbia’s deputy prime minister at the end of last week.
The Serbian government has also used the Trump administration’s dismantling of foreign aid for its own ends. Raids against non-profit organisations have been justified in part by financing that some received from USAID.
The government justified the action by referring to the Trump administration's dismantling of the American aid agency and its denunciation by Elon Musk as a "criminal organization,” according to the New York Times.
The paper also points out that the Serbian government has not come after “the biggest beneficiaries of American aid money, more than 90 percent of which has gone to government and state-affiliated institutions, including the national Parliament.”
Solidarity with protesters
It is against this backdrop of state repression that the letter firmly commits to a message of solidarity with the Serbian people and protestors. It highlights the interconnected nature of struggle and emphasizes the need to build collective power through solidarity.
The letter also concludes by calling out the EU for inaction, discrediting its own fundamental values and policy. It reaffirms the pressing need for ‘clearer messages and concrete actions’ to ‘show citizens and civil society organisations that they are not alone in this fight, and that the EU truly upholds the values it claims to stand for.”
The letter’s coordinators, European Civic Forum and Balkan Civil Society Development Network, sent the letter to EU institutions on 7 March. As of last Friday (21 March), they had received no response.
Protests ongoing
In the weeks following the publication of the letter, the government’s denial and repression has only continued – but so have the protests.
On Monday 10 March, “several hundred student protestors… blocked Serbia’s public television station building in Belgrade,” The Guardian reported. The protesters accused the station of “biased reporting and siding with Vučić and the government during the demonstrations.”
The police reportedly used force against the protesters. The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić – a key target of the protests – responded by saying ”you will have to kill me if you want to replace me”, alongside threatening further use of force.
In the face of this continued repression, the Serbian people continue to stand up to Vučić and his government. On Friday 14 March, a huge demonstration, billed as the “climax of more than four months of student-led protests,” took place in the streets of Belgrade, causing the city to grind to all but a standstill.
Reports of sonic cannon deployment
There are also reports of the government using a sonic cannon (long-range acoustic device, LRAD) during that protest to disperse crowds.
European Civic Forum has received information that:
More than 100 citizens reported... severe symptoms of LRAD-like exposure, while dozens of reports continue coming; citizens seek medical assistance and legal help. Victims, from students to the elderly, experience failure of pacemakers, high blood pressure, nausea, tension-type headaches, disorientation, hearing problems, and anxiety. Serious cases included an epileptic seizure and several heart attacks at the time or immediately after the incident.
A lawyer and former police commissioner, Bozo Prelevic, told a Serbian television programme that the Serbian government possesses a sound cannon, according to The New Arab. It was made by US company Genasys but imported via Israel in 2022, he claimed.
The government denies using a sound cannon and any such use remains unconfirmed by independent sources. Sonic cannons cause a range of unpleasant physiological effects, and their use by the police is prohibited by Serbian law.
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Further reading
Italian security decree "most serious attack on right to protest in recent decades"
A bill under discussion in the Italian senate is "the most serious attack to the freedom of protest ever waged in recent decades," says a joint statement signed by 26 organisations from across Europe, including Statewatch. The bill, targeted at the climate and environmental movements, would criminalise protest roadblocks. Other measures would increase punishments for resisting major infrastructure projects. The bill would "further criminalise and marginalise vulnerable communities, including immigrants, beggars, the homeless, Roma people, those residing in squats, and detainees," says the statement.
Environmental activism under the EU counter-terror microscope
Next week, EU and member state officials will discuss “the role of climate change and environmental concerns in violent extremist and terrorist radicalisation.” A discussion paper for the meeting, obtained by Statewatch, considers the threat posed by “violent left-wing and anarchist extremism” – a heading under which a number of prominent environmental protest groups are mentioned. The inclusion of peaceful but disruptive groups in the paper may legitimate further police surveillance and infiltration, legal harassment and government crackdowns – a problem identified as “a major threat to human rights and democracy” by a UN Special Rapporteur.
Spain: Terrorism charges against protesters undermine "international human rights and democratic standards"
A letter signed by 20 organisations from across Europe, including Statewatch, calls for the dropping of terrorism charges filed by the Spanish authorities against 12 protesters. The 12 face the charges for organising a blockade of Barcelona's El Prat airport and the motorway at La Jonquera, near the border with France, in protest at the jailing of Catalan independence leaders. "The misuse of the accusation of terrorism is unjustifiable," the letter says. It goes on to say that it undermines "international human rights and democratic standards" and "has a chilling effect on civic engagement."
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