(31 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Near Indjija, Serbia – 31 January 2025
1. Various aerials of students marching past fields ++MUTE++
2. Tractors driving ahead of students
3. Various of students marching, UPSOUND of cheers and whistles
4. Helicopters flying overhead
5. Students passing road sign reading (Serbian) "Novi Sad, 26 kilometres (16 miles)"
STORYLINE:
After spending a freezing night out in the open, hundreds of striking Serbian students on Friday resumed their two-day anti-graft protest march from the capital, Belgrade to the northern city of Novi Sad.
The 80-kilometer (50-mile) march is the latest endeavour in their widening protest movement over a deadly overhang collapse in November that killed 15 people.
A massive blockade of Novi Sad’s bridges over the Danube is planned for Saturday to mark three months since the huge concrete construction at the railway station fell on the people below on November 1.
What started as a protest against suspected corruption in construction contracts has developed into the most serious challenge in years to the country’s powerful populist leader, President Aleksandar Vucic.
The students set off on Thursday and were greeted along the way by cheering citizens, honking their car horns or coming out of their homes with offers of refreshments, fruit or pancakes.
As they arrived at about the halfway point of their march in the town of Indjija on Thursday night, they were greeted by fireworks and cheering locals.
Although most of them spent the night out in the open on a soccer field, the freezing temperatures did not dampen their desire to push for major change in the Balkan state.
Weekslong demonstrations have already forced the resignation of Serbia’s prime minister Milos Vucevic this week, along with various concessions from authorities unused to making them.
The protests also reflect wider popular discontent in Serbia with Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
The president and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have imposed a firm grip on all state institutions and mainstream media while facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms, despite promises to lead Serbia into the European Union.
Many in Serbia believe that the collapse of the overhang at the train station was essentially caused by government corruption in a large infrastructure project with Chinese state companies.
Critics believe graft led to a sloppy job during reconstruction of the Novi Sad train station, poor oversight and disrespect of existing safety regulations.
AP video by Eldar Emric and Armin Durgut
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