Police push back protesters in Novi Sad, November 17, 2025. Photo: N1/Sanja Kosovic.
Serbian protesters clashed with police in the city of Novi Sad in front of the regional government building of Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern province, on Monday night, as a hunger strike by bus company owner Milomir Jacimovic became a flashpoint in the ongoing student-led protest movement.
Jacimovic has become popular among students for providing them with transport to protests. In a show of support for the protest movement, he also parked one of his buses outside the Vojvodina government building.
Police, who Jacimovic claims have already seized seven of his vehicles, said the bus was illegally parked and had to be removed. Protesters tried to stop the police, who responded with force.
Vukasin Djinovic, a student from the Faculty of Sciences at Novi Sad University, was injured in the clashes. N1 TV filmed Djinovic with blood on his face and hands. He told N1 that a police officer hit him with a shield.
“He just took the shield and hit me on the head with all his might. The whole of my nose bled, all this is blood from the nose. Unprovoked, he just rammed the shield into my head,” Djinovic said.
Jacimovic started his hunger strike on November 10, demanding the return of all the buses seized by the police and the cancellation of his fines for alleged traffic violations.
The Academic Plenum, a group of professors and employees at the University of Novi Sad, condemned the attack on the student, Djinovic. “This is not an isolated case, but part of a recognisable pattern of violence against students,” their statement on Instagram said.
They demanded that the perpetrators be held accountable and called for early parliamentary elections, which is also a demand of the student-led protests that have been ongoing since November 2024, when the Novi Sad railway station disaster sparked an upsurge of public anger against the government.
Also on Monday, students from Novi Sad University’s Faculty of Medicine posted a video on X showing a police officer in full riot gear hitting a woman on the head, sparking allegations of brutality.
But the Interior Ministry said the police had acted “exclusively in accordance with the law … with the sole goal of preserving public order, [and] the peace and safety of all citizens”.
The Ministry added that police removed the Jacimovic’s bus on the order of the prosecutor’s office, “after it was determined that the bus was parked illegally, without licence plates, and that fuel was leaking from the tank.
“Some individuals obstructed officials in the performance of their duties, threw objects at them, insulted and damaged the removal service vehicle,” the Ministry said.
It added that “the bus was safely removed, and so far two people have been brought in for disturbing the public order and the peace”.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media, ANEM, meanwhile accused a police officer of unnecessarily pushing away a journalist from the Razglas news website, Zarko Bogosavljevic, who was identified as a media worker by the press vest he was wearing while livestreaming the incident.
“Since the beginning of August to date, there have been over 20 recorded police attacks on female and male journalists, and none have been sanctioned so far,” ANEM said in a statement.