Riot police in front of the aquarium construction site in Usce Park, Belgrade, February 17, 2026. Photo: EPA/ANDREJ CUKIC.
Student protest groups from three Belgrade University faculties said on their Instagram accounts that dozens of fellow students were arrested late Tuesday at a demonstration in a park in the Serbian capital, mostly on their way home after it had ended.
“The police are chasing and arresting [protesters] … They are everywhere. On the side streets, around the university and student dormitories,” said a post by Students in Blockade, one of the main Instagram accounts for student protesters.
Videos published on social media showed police in full riot gear chasing people through the park and arresting them. Serbia’s Interior Ministry has yet to confirm how many were held.
The park protest was triggered by two events: violence at an earlier demonstration this week in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, and the construction of a new aquarium by the authorities in Belgrade which has seen parkland fenced off.
On Monday, protesters gathered outside the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, where an event was being held to mark the 200th anniversary of Serbia’s cultural and literary institution Matica Srpska, attended by government and ruling party officials.
Amid a heavy police presence, supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party faced off against protesters near the venue. A group of hooded men then rushed at the protesters and started assaulting them, it was alleged.
On Tuesday evening, speaking to pro-government Pink TV, President Aleksandar Vucic appeared to justify the attack.
“When they [protesters] arrived, they were surprised that there were many more people who wanted to enter the Serbian National Theatre [and join the official event]. Then they attacked them, and some people didn’t want to run away. Then they [government supporters] slapped them … You think you can beat someone up every day – and no one will react?” Vucic asked.
Tuesday’s protest was held in Usce Park, one of the biggest in Belgrade, because part of the park has been fenced off for the construction of a new aquarium, one of several new projects planned to be built for the start of the authorities’ controversial Expo 2027 mega-project.
Both the protests were also part of ongoing demonstrations sparked by an infrastructure collapse at Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, which left 16 people dead and raised allegations of official corruption and negligence.
There were also two other demonstrations in Serbia at the weekend. On Sunday, Serbian Statehood Day, on the anniversary of a similar protest in 2025, people gathered at a student-led rally in Kragujevac and in nearby Orasac.
On Saturday, a protest was also held in Valjevo to highlight victims of police attacks on protesters in the town on August 14, 2025, and the police use of force to suppress protests in other places in Serbia.
Since the ongoing protests began in 2024, there have been repeated incidents of masked men attacking demonstrators.