How Serbia’s Government Spent the Year Trying to Dodge an Election

After its initial months of extra-institutional struggle, the student movement has politically matured. This was driven primarily by the wider context under which it operated: an increasingly authoritarian and violent regime, entirely resistant to any demands that might threaten its grip on power.

After months of protests, rallies, blockades and various other activities, it became clear that the government had no intention of fulfilling any of the students’ demands. Even when some concessions did appear, they were manipulative in nature, such as the repeated “releases” of documentation related to the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station, whose collapse in November 2024 claimed 16 lives and triggered the demonstrations.

Although the authorities released the documentation on several occasions (each time claiming that now it was “fully published”), independent experts have determined that many key documents remain missing and that several of those provided were flawed, suggesting that the government was merely buying time.