The mass protests in Serbia are spreading to the Serbian dijaspora abroad. In Vienna, students from Serbia are organizing weekly protests in front of the Serbian embassy. Like back home, they demand that those responsible for the collapse of a roof at the train station in Novi Sad that killed 15 people be brought to justice.

The group of perhaps 30 people starts right on time. At 11:52 AM everyone falls silent, many raise their hands to display protest signs, Serbian student IDs or red gloves – the hallmark of the mass protests that have swept Serbia for two months. They stand for the blood the protesters say the government and government offices have on their hands.

11:52 AM – that is the time that the roof in front of the train station of Novi Sad collapsed on November 1^st 2024, killing 15 people. Chinese main contractors had just renovated the station in Serbia’s second biggest city, subcontracting several local companies. Some of them have close ties to the country’s ruling party SNS.

Silence is lingering over the street corner opposite the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Vienna’s third district. The only voices one can hear are those of the three Austrian police officers who block access to the embassy. They tell stories of past engagements. First louder, then they muffle their voices.

After about twelve minutes an infant starts to cry. He has no idea of what’s going on. The long silence and the look of grieve on his parents’ face confuses or scares him. His parents try to calm him down in hushed voices.

“It’s Worst in Serbia”

These protests are no longer just about the tragic accident in Novi Sad many in Serbia blame on blatant corruption in the Kingdom of Aleksandar. Several protesters hold up signs reminding the public of disturbing and tragic events in all of former Yugoslavia in the past year. Zagreb and Ribnikar – two schools that saw a mass stabbing and a mass shooting respectively. Cetinje in Montenegro, where a man shot killed twelve people on New Year’s Day. Donja Jablanica in Hercegovina, where a rock slide from an illegal quarry killed almost 20 people in October.

Protesters blame these deadly events on systemic corruption and neglicence by government authorities. “It’s a problem in the entire region”, Kristijan tells me after the protest. “Corruption has replaced the rule of law, and that’s a problem. But it’s worst in Serbia”. His girlfriend Sanija from Zenica in Bosnia nods in agreement.

The silence lasts for exactly 15 minutes. One minute for each victim of the tragedy of Novi Sad. And about as long as most human beings can raise their arms holding small weights. When the silence ends, some of the protesters look exhausted, mainly the older ones.

Organized by Students

While there are some workers and pensioners among them, university students appear to be the bulk of today’s protesters. Or people who just recently graduated. Like Katarina from Beograd. She has been living in Vienna for eight years. She came to study music and decided to stay. She is one of the organizers. “We want to show our fellow students and fellow Serbians that they are not alone”, she says. “That’s why I and several other young people decided to organize demonstrations. We hope to have them every week”.

This Saturday is the third installment already. The turnout is somewhat lower than on the first protests two weeks ago when around 100 people showed up. But then again, it’s colder today than it was in December. Also, many Serbians went home for the holidays to celebrate New Year and Orthodox Christmas in their home country. And mobilization still works mainly through personal contacts on social media or via telephone.

Huge Pool of Dissenters

Vienna is home to more than 100.000 first and second generation immigrants from Serbia. Plus, many of the third generation somehow identify as Serbian, though not all necessarily speak the language or have close ties to the homeland of their grandparents. Out of the younger ones, many somehow like Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić, Kristijan says.

That’s not so true of those who recently came here. They still remember why they left the country. No matter what the profession or formal education, for most it was a lack of perspectives back home, frustration over corruption many call systemic, and over the political system many says is becoming ever more authoritarian.

Hypothetically, this should make for a huge pool of potential protesters in the city. So far no one has managed to tap it.

For one, the networks of oppositional movements are largely informal. For the other, there aren’t all that many local media directed towards the Ex-YU dijaspora who cover this sort of political activity. Plus, many recent immigrants are so frustrated over the state of their home country and so busy trying to build new lives here they don’t want to get active. This makes it hard to reach a significant portion of sympathizers.

The organizers make up for this with a lot of hard work. Most of the signs people are holding today are of the same design the protesting students in Serbia use.

The Word No One Dares to Use

Speaking of politics: One can’t help but notice how the organizers stress that their protests are not political. “No, this is not political”, Katarina says. “It of course has to do with politics, but we demand is that the prosecutors thoroughly investigate the accident in Novi Sad, that those people responsible be prosecuted and sentenced. We demand that the state does its job.”

Jovana also stresses this point. She is from Beograd and was just visiting relatives and friends for Orthodox Christmas in Vienna. “We demand that the justice system works the way it is supposed to”. As if that were not a highly political demand in any country in former Yugoslavia.

But to many, the word “politics” has become synonymous with the politics of the Powers That Be, and with the attempts by political parties to gain power or get their functionaries into well paid positions they have decided to avoid it altogether.

And whether one wants to call these protests political or not – the fact remains that Serbia has seen several waves of mass protests in the course of just the past year and a half: First, hundreds of thousands took to the streets for months after a 13 year old boy killed nine fellow students and a security guard in a middle school in Beograd, and a 21 year old man killed 20 people in Mladenovac and Smederevo in May 2023.

Then the protests after a number of severe irregularities in the early elections King Aleksandar had called for after the earlier mass protests – many, including international observers, called them rigged outright.

In the summer of 2024 tens of thousands protested against the government’s decision to grant mining rights to an international corporation for Lithium deposits in the Drina Valley in Western Serbia. The mines would destroy large parts of the local ecosystems.

None of these protests had long lasting effects.

“We Hope We Can Change Something”

This time will be different, today’s protesters say. “We are seeing demonstrations in many cities in the world with a large Serbian dijaspora. They all want that Serbia becomes a democratic country with a functioning rule of law, a truly European country”, Kristian says. “And this time, it is the students who carry the protests. They are a force to be reckoned with.”

Jovana is optimistic. “I have been to some of the demonstrations back home. Look at the turnout. It wasn’t like that before. So I really hope this is going to change something”. Katarina says she and her friends will keep organizing protests here. “We have to do what we can. And I really think this time, we can change something”.

Contributions: Ivor Fuka

This reportage has also been published in translation on Lupiga.

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