Serb here, here’s some context:

We had mass anti-government protests in Serbia almost every year for the past 6-7 years, but this current wave is the biggest since the fall of Milosevic. In November, the canopy at the train station in Novi Sad suddenly collapsed, killing 15 people (the train station was renovated twice and opened in July last year), essentially nobody was punished and we had protests, the same as every year when something happens.

But then the students in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Nis rose and blocked virtually all universities. They started blocking the streets for 15 mins every day at 11:52 (1 minute for each person that was killed by corruption), and held weekly protests. Almost everyone was delighted by this and joined and helped the students in any way they could. Then pupils in secondary schools started protesting, which caused the government to close the schools for winter early. The new semester was supposed to start this week, but some schools and teachers deceided to strike and stay closed. A few weeks ago in Belgrade we had the biggest protests in the history of Serbia (bigger than the 5th October protests that ended the reign of Milosevic).

The students came out with a list of specific demands and wouldn’t pull back an inch, and everyone else is participating in support of the students and their demands. They’re insanely well organized and made this as clearly guided as possible (there’s absolutely no talk of Russia, the EU, Kosovo, the US, who’s a nationalist, who’s progressive, the protests are for a country with functioning institutions). It really shattered the image of young people being apolitical and not caring about anything.

This is all built on 13 years of scandal after scandal, and the Novi Sad tragedy could very well be the breaking point that led everyone to say enough is enough. I left a lot out, but we never had a movement such as this one, and there is a very real possibility that real change comes out of this.