Novi Sad

Serbia has witnessed an extraordinary political transformation.

What began as student-led protests following the deadly Novi Sad railway station collapse in November 2024 evolved into a nationwide movement challenging Aleksandar Vucic's populist authoritarianism, institutional capture, and entrenched patronage networks.

Through decentralized organization, civil disobedience, and unprecedented civic mobilization, students transformed public indignation into electoral power, securing a parliamentary majority in October, 2026, and ending 14 years of SNS dominance.

Yet profound questions remain about democratic institutionalization and the durability of this transformation.

As you said in your introduction, the struggle has lasted for two years.

The student movement started as a social actor.

They mobilized in grief, firstly, after the deadly collapse on the railway station in the second largest city of Novi Sad.

But slowly, step after step, they managed somehow to translate this grief into a political force that finally managed to defeat the authoritarian ruler.

Serbia stands at a historic crossroads.

Nearly two years of student-led protests, sparked by the 2024 Novi Sad railway station tragedy, culminated in the October 25 electoral defeat of Alexander Vucic's ruling coalition.

Yet the transition from authoritarian rule to democratic consolidation remains uncertain.

Today, we welcome Professor Nebojsa Vladisevlevic, who teaches comparative and Serbian politics at the University of Belgrade, a former president of the Serbian Political Science Association.

So there's quite a lot of work to do.

Right.

The Novi Sad railway station tragedy triggered nearly two years of student-led protests that ultimately challenged Vucic's political dominance.

What explains the movement's success, where previous opposition parties and protest campaigns had failed, was its decisive advantage, organizational innovation, moral legitimacy, or the regime's declining capacity to maintain public consent.

Yeah.

The student protests in Belgrade began over the 2024 Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse.

God, that's awful.

It really is.

So elections wouldn't have been held until next year, but Vucic called snap elections.

And then they took place against a backdrop that was... two years of really unrest in Serbia and mass mobilization of people that was triggered by the collapse of a canopy of a train station in Novi Sad, which was then found out, you know, killed 16 people, including children, a pregnant woman.

It was a total tragedy.

And it was found out this was a brand new train station canopy.

You know, they also arrested a former head of criminal police and the director there.

Plus an owner of Alta Bank is one of the major banks in Serbia because of financial investigations.

Also, they've arrested a principal of a school in Novi Sad who refused to comply with a court order to reinstate teachers who went on strike and protested.

And then also arrested the head of Serbia's meteorology institute.

And so it feels like the communist model is winning in some places and the anarchist model is winning elsewhere.

So what triggered the Serbian wave? Well, we have to go back to November of 2024, when in Novi Sad, 100 kilometers northwest of Belgrade, the canopy over a new train station, which had been opened and inaugurated by Vucic standing alongside Viktor Orban a few months before, and this train station was supposedly a symbol of Vucic's managerial prowess and technocratic savvy, the thing collapsed.

and it killed 16 normal people going about their normal lives.

And in dying, they exposed the lazy, venal neglect of the capitalist class who are happy to profit over endangerment.

Nonetheless, in October, the Vucic Coalition rejected a law banning lithium mining and exploration.

Which brings us to November 1st, 2024.

11.52 a.m., the newly reconstructed canopy of Novi Sad's railway station caves in.

16 people are killed.

So I'll give you the very brief backstory just for the sake of time.

So about two years ago in Serbia in a northern city called Novi Sad, what happened was a railway station canopied So, you know, when you go out the front of the railway station, there's a covering.

It was made of concrete.

It collapsed and killed 16 people.