Tens of thousands rally in Serbia against authoritarian President Vucic

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people joined a rally on Saturday called by Serbia ‘s protesting university students despite efforts by the government of authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic to curb mass demonstrations that shook his hard-line rule last year.

Protesters streamed into a central square in the capital, Belgrade, from several directions, many carrying banners and wearing T-shirts inscribed with the “Students win” motto of the youth movement. Columns of cars drove into Belgrade from other Serbian towns earlier in the day.

Protester Maja Milas Markovic said students “managed to gather us here with their youth and wonderful energy; I really believe that we have right to live normally.”

The students led a nationwide wave of mass anti-corruption street protests demanding accountability for a train station tragedy in Serbia’s north in November 2024 that killed 16 people. Those protests forced then-Prime Minister Milos Vucevic to resign before Vucic pushed back hard against the protesters.

Serbia’s state railway company on Saturday canceled all trains to and from Belgrade, in a bid to stop at least some of the people from coming from other parts of the Balkan country.

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Vucic’s loyalists meanwhile gathered in a park camp outside the Serbian presidency building that he set up ahead of another big anti-government rally last March as a human shield against protesters. Folk music blared from a fenced area surrounded by riot police in full gear.

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Students have said their rally will be peaceful. But there are concerns of violence with Vucic’s loyalists, who are often hooded and masked, and who have attacked student protesters in the past.

The Serbian president has faced international scrutiny for his hard-line ways against the demonstrators. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, criticized Serbia’s government in a report this week and said he “will monitor the situation closely” on Saturday.

Serbia is formally seeking European Union entry but it has nourished close ties with Russia and China. The democratic backsliding under Vucic could cost the country around 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in European Union funding, the EU’s top enlargement official warned last month.

The venue on Saturday is Belgrade’s Slavija Square, the scene of a huge anti-government protest in March 2025. That rally ended in sudden disruption that experts later said — and the government denied — involved the use of a sonic weapon against peaceful demonstrators.

Students now say they plan to challenge Vucic at approaching elections later this year or next that they hope will oust the right-wing populist government. Vucic said this week that the ballot could be held between September and November this year.

Vucic, government officials and the pro-government media have branded critics as terrorists and foreign agents who wish to destroy the country — rhetoric that has ramped up political polarization.