(15 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kragujevac, Serbia – 15 February 2025
1. Various top shots of protesters standing in silence
2. Various of protesters standing in silence, holding placards
3. Various top shots of the protest, UPSOUND: car horns and drums, people cheering
4. Various of protesters jumping and chanting
5. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Nebojsa Ivankovic, local resident:
”We hope for a victory and the success of our students because what they have awakened in us is empathy, love, victory for that justice finally and to once again feel what many generations have not felt, and that is freedom.”
6. People at the protest
7. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Teodora (no last name given), protester from Belgrade:
”I am here to support this student rebellion, which has grown into a civil rebellion, and to fight for the rule of law and justice in this society, so that Serbia becomes a country where life is dignified.”
8. Various top shots of the protest
STORYLINE:
Serbia’s striking students stood in silence for 15 minutes during a protest to pay respect for the victims of roof collapse in Novi Sad.
The student-led protest is the latest in a nationwide anti-graft movement that reflects mounting calls for fundamental political changes in the Balkan state, triggered after a concrete canopy on a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, killing 15 people.
The rally, in the central industrial city of Kragujevac, drew tens of thousands of people who, bedsides demanding justice over a fatal accident, have been asking to root out rampant endemic corruption and respect for the rule of law.
Students chose Kragujevac for Saturday’s rally because of its history.
In 1835, Serbia was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
People in Kragujevac announced a new constitution that sought to limit the powers of the then-rulers.
The date is now celebrated as the Statehood Day.
Th students organized marches in various parts of the country, encouraging people to converge in Kragujevac.
Some walked, others ran or cycled.
The anti-graft movement is Vucic’s biggest challenge in recent years.
The president — who has ruled Serbia with a firm grip on power for more than a decade— and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have been previously accused of stifling democratic freedoms, publicly discrediting opponents and rigging elections, according to international vote observers.
The canopy disaster, widely believed to have happened due to government corruption, has become a flashpoint for wider discontent with the authoritarian rule, with university students at the forefront of the anti-graft uprising.
Their determination, youth and creativity have struck a cord among people widely disillusioned with politicians.
Prosecutors have charged 13 people over the canopy fall, and protests have forced the resignation of Serbia’s prime minister.
But students have said their protests will continue until their demands for full accountability are met.
AP video by Ivana Bzganovic and Marko Drobnjakovic
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