(27 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade, Serbia – 27 January 2025
1. Various of students marching, some carrying banners and flags
2. Students holding banner reading (Serbian): “Requests have not been fulfilled”
3. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Jana Ilic, protester:
”I came here to support students because for the first time we are organised to change something. I protested before and it has never been like this. This time I believe and hope that we will change something because we have had enough.”
4. Wide of student, one waving Serbian flag
5. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Ivana Kovac, student:
”We honestly believe that our requests will be fulfilled, this is why we are here. We have a support from the majority of the people. We always said that we have four requests and we will stick to them until they are fulfilled.”
6. Various of students arriving along highway accompanied by farmers driving tractors
7. Various of protest
8. Various of students standing in silence for 15 minutes to pay tribute to victims of roof collapse
9. Various aerials of protest, blocked intersection ++MUTE++
STORYLINE:
Serbia’s striking university students on Monday launched a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the capital Belgrade, stepping up pressure on the populist authorities following a deadly canopy collapse in November that killed 15 people.
Serbian farmers on tractors and thousands of protesters joined the blockade that followed weeks of demonstrations demanding accountability over the deadly accident in the northern city of Novi Sad that critics have blamed on rampant government corruption.
A campaign of street demonstrations has posed the biggest challenge in years to the populist government’s firm grip on power in Serbia.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic are set later on Monday to announce “important decisions” about the situation, the state RTS television said. It was not immediately clear what the decisions could be.
Vucic has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia.
He has accused the students of working for unspecified foreign powers to oust the government.
Several incidents have marked the street demonstrations in the past weeks, including drivers ramming into the crowds when two young women were injured.
Traffic police on Monday secured the student blockade to help avoid any similar incidents.
Protesting students set up tents at the protest site, which is a key artery for the city commuters and toward the main north-south motorway.
Some played games or just milled around before holding a 15-minute silence at 11.52, the exact same time when the canopy at a train station in Novi Sad crashed down on November 1.
Vucic has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia.
Many in Serbia believe the huge concrete canopy fell down because of sloppy reconstruction work that resulted from corruption.
Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges against 13 people for the canopy collapse, including a government minister and several state officials.
But the former construction minister Goran Vesic has been released from detention, fuelling doubts over the investigation’s independence.
The main railway station in Novi Sad was renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure deal with Chinese state companies.
AP video shot by: Ivana Bzganovic
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