On Saturday, November 1st students and the citizens of Serbia will mark the anniversary in Novi Sad falling canopy at the railway station in this city, a tragedy that took 16 human lives, opened countless questions and started a great student-citizen rebellion that has not subsided to this day. In this year, Serbia has changed, however much at first glance many things have remained the same. It was as if a tragedy had torn us out of the sea in which we were suffocating, in the dark, without air. A huge, painful tragedy that contained catharsis.
Until the tragedy and the events that followed, we believed that we would be powerless for a long time, trapped in the jaws of a klepto-capitalist-ignorant regime, personified by one mega-odious person. That most young people live in parallel worlds that hardly touch reality. That they are systematically disgusted by politics, i.e. that they have received the message that nothing will and cannot change here, that they have come to terms with the fact that their lives are ruled and that, if they don't slip somewhere, they will be ruled forever by reckless slobs whose presence dries up a sponge soaked in rain in an instant.
It is important for autocratic regimes to kill all hope in citizens. You who live in this country, leave all hope outside its borders! The student-citizen post-canopy protest will go down in history as one of the foundational events in this country, no matter how it ends. Of course, under the condition that Serbia and its history survive the progressive government at all. This phenomenon of books and studies will be written about, not only here, and no one will be able to avoid the fact that he gave back to a dilapidated, exhausted society what it needed most - hope. And when she wakes up, it is impossible to stop her with batons, sound cannons, violence and fear, "Balkan espionage" methods. Above all, the students gave us back hope, and that is a revolutionary shift, probably the most important legacy of their movement.
Although deeply political and anti-regime, this rebellion is much more social. And that gives it added value, on which tax is paid. It also represents the fight against a society that has been destroyed for many years, built on corruption, which is more a way of life than a political problem. Students do not agree, as almost all of us agree, to live in an environment where honesty, modesty, good upbringing and other virtues have become an object of ridicule, something that does not belong to "serious people", something that eliminates from "serious jobs". They somehow already found out what this society did to their predecessors, the student protesters from the nineties. Honor to the exceptions and those who left here, but most of them were crushed by this society, they became their own caricatures. Today's students, if at all on a superficial level, understand that they have to change society so that it doesn't turn them into frowns. It's as if they're telling us: if we want to defeat the "dogs" and change society, we must first deal with our inner "dogs".
We don't want to write a dithyramb about students. No matter how much they matured overnight, no matter how much their movement created and learned by itself, no matter how much the form of inclusive plenums mostly brought good decisions, of course the students made many mistakes and will continue to make them. But they are small compared to what they have achieved so far. Just look at the shortest possible chronology of important events that we have prepared. Almost none of it would have happened if it weren't for them. They woke up even the most sleepy, they exposed the regime inside and out to the end, with their own courage and determination they showed everyone its bestial and ignorant character. The regime, as important as it pretends to be, has no answer to what the students are doing. This best says that he was defeated even if by some miracle, that is, by violence, he remains in power. Many things the regime does are just a cheap copy of the student actions. With, of course, violence.
A multi-volume encyclopedia could already be written about the student-citizen rebellion. Due to lack of space, many important events and many important persons who survived torture were omitted from the chronological review that we have prepared. The events that we considered the most indicative were selected.
In his metastasized addresses, Vučić has announced the largest progressive gathering in history many times so far. I guess that meant that more buses would be hired, that they would allocate more money for the daily wages of their "fans" than ever before. It did not happen, nor will it happen. There may be a million lying media and cops, but no one can hide the truth. His gatherings testify to stumbling, not to strength.
It is difficult to estimate how many people will be on the streets of Novi Sad on November 1. Will it be the biggest rally ever. But, as things stand, there will be an ocean of people on the streets of Novi Sad. Come and be a part of history!
CHRONOLOGY OF THE REBELLION
1. November 2024. After the two overpriced renovations of the Novi Sad Railway Station, which had just been completed, the station canopy, weighing around 300 tons, collapsed, claiming 16 lives. Citizens are furious, they know perfectly well that this is a logical consequence of the corruption and incompetence that have entwined heaven and earth in progressive Serbia. Anger is growing because of the lies that government officials are telling about the tragedy. The most famous of them, quickly debunked on social networks and in independent media, is the one uttered by Aleksandar Vučić: only the canopy has not been renovated, no one knows why.
5. November 2024. A large protest of citizens in Novi Sad, tens of thousands of people on the streets pay tribute to the victims and demand responsibility for the tragedy. The protest ends in front of the City Hall, which was demolished that evening. Inside the facility and in its surroundings were special police units that were not authorized to respond. The thugs who demolished the City Hall have not been discovered to this day, which leads to the suspicion that the scenario from earlier citizen protests against the progressive government in this city has been repeated: trained and masked regime-criminal groups demolish and set fire to peaceful protests to be declared violent. The same evening, Vučić comes to Novi Sad and in front of the party premises, in front of several hundred party activists, gives a speech in which he tries to put the Novi Sad tragedy in the background, emphasizing the violence of the demonstrators. The police are arresting young people, the way they are. Not the ones with "pupils". All this produced even more anger.
21. November 2024. By order of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad, 11 persons suspected of being responsible for the tragedy were arrested and detained. Former minister Goran Vesić is among them.
22. November 2024. Students and professors of state universities in Serbia joined the protests that are taking place across the country. However, the catalyst of the large, systemic student revolt was the attack in front of the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Artists on November 22. Organized activists of the party in power physically attack students and professors who pay their respects to the victims of Novi Sad. After that, student blockades of faculties and rectors all over the country began. Students show a high degree of organization, easily adopting the form of an inclusive plenum as a model for decision-making. Very quickly their rebellion reaches high popularity among the citizens. The regime is confused, initially propagandistically retreating in the face of the student uprising, realizing that the usual dehumanizing methods of fighting against political opponents should not be used against the youth. He decides on the following tactic: he sends bullies against them, and at the same time he even gives them a bit of a lift in his public messages. Then he gives up on the defensive and launches a propaganda counterattack: during the following months, students become "terrorists", "Ustasha", "foreign mercenaries"... They are brutally beaten and arrested.
28. November 2024. Freedom and Justice Party MP Marinika Tepić publishes an audio recording on social networks in which the speech of the Vice-President of the Assembly of AP Vojvodina Damir Zobenica can be heard. On it, this progressive "special operations" character can be heard ordering party activists to attack and insult students and other citizens in protest. Vučić claims that the video is the result of artificial intelligence, but a few weeks later Zobenica resigned.
11. December 2024. In an "exclusive" public appearance, Aleksandar Vučić announces that all student demands have been met. Until that moment, the students demanded the publication of complete documentation on the reconstruction of the Railway Station in Novi Sad, as well as the disclosure of those responsible for the attack on the students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. In addition, they demanded the dismissal of the charges against the arrested students and citizens detained during the protest, as well as an increase in funding for state universities. The students assessed that it was political mimicry, that the demands were not met. Vučić then called the student protests "political demonstrations". He mentioned "hybrid warfare", "external funding", "pressure groups". He practically announced the propaganda war against students that would soon follow. He later regretted "having fulfilled the student demands". According to experts and students, parts of the most important documentation on the reconstruction of the station are hidden to this day, and parts of the publicized documentation are falsified.
12. January 2025. The first large protest was held at the invitation of students, in front of the Constitutional Court building in Belgrade. At the same time as the Belgrade protest, a protest was also held in Niš on the same day. The day before, students protested in front of the Security and Information Agency in Novi Sad, and the day before in Belgrade, they blocked one of the main roads for an hour - the Mostar loop. With these protests, they demonstrated their strength, extended their activities beyond the faculty and brought additional unrest into the ranks of the regime. At that moment, 60 faculties at four state universities were "out of function", that is, in the function of freedom.
22. January 2025. At Zmaj Jova's high school in Novi Sad, the Cyrillic inscription "Come to school" appeared. With this "slip", which for many was a metaphor for the grammatical and educational mistakes of progressive activists, the author enriched the Serbian language. Forever. From then until today, no one needed to explain what "čaci" means, everyone personally had experience with people to whom this nickname was a slap in the face.
28. January 2025. "Unknown" persons repeatedly attacked students and other citizens during road blockades and protests. We remember that one girl tried to drive her car through a large group of demonstrators in New Belgrade, causing serious injuries to one of the students. Another female student was seriously injured in a similar scenario in Belgrade's Rooseveltova Street. However, the most significant and indicative act of violence took place during the night of January 28, when four people with thick criminal records ran out of the premises of SNS in Novi Sad and beat students who were distributing protest material with batons. Then one student got serious injuries, they beat her with bats while she was lying on the pavement. After this event, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, and the Mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić, resigned, condemning the violence. In July, however, the President of Serbia pardoned the four, calling them "heroes". Later, the bully from Gagarinova Street in New Belgrade was also pardoned. These pardons caused a huge revolt of citizens, as well as judges, prosecutors and lawyers. It is believed that the president abused his constitutional and legal powers by granting pardons, and approved a "hunting season" for students and citizens in rebellion.
1-2. February 2025. One hundred days since the Novi Sad accident, bridge blockades and mass protests in Novi Sad. This action intensifies the protests. Farmers also joined the students. Apart from the long duration and massiveness, these demonstrations will also be remembered for the fact that, more than any previous one, they attracted a lot of attention from the international public.
15. February 2025. At the large protest in Kragujevac, which was initiated by students, more than one hundred thousand people gathered. Parallel to this rally, a SNS meeting was held in Sremska Mitrovica, where Vučić used the term "color revolution" for student protests - not for the first time. He also said that three billion euros were invested in the destruction of the state. He did not say where the money came from. "Color revolution" is the term for civil protests in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, whose goal was to break away from Russia and the European integration processes of their countries. To this day, it is unclear why this term is used for protests in a country that is officially and fanatically on the European path, as the government claims. In this period, regime propaganda claimed that the goal of the protest was the secession of Vojvodina. It was later forgotten, as it became clear that it was a notorious folly. Seven days earlier, Vučić announced that he was writing the book "How I Defeated the Colored Revolution" and that it would be published by Vidovdan (June 28). To this day, the book has not seen the light of day, and the "revolution" is still going on.
14. March 2025. After the audio recording of the meeting in the Novi Sad committee of the Movement of Free Citizens was broadcast on regime television, six activists of this party and the student group "Stav" were arrested on the charge of planning a coup d'état. Six other young people, students, who were wanted by the police, found themselves in political exile due to circumstances. Lawyers and jurists claim that it is a politically motivated process that has a propaganda goal - to declare students and citizens in rebellion as terrorists. Those arrested spent a couple of months in the custody of the Novi Sad prison on Klisa, in extremely inhumane conditions. They were later placed under house arrest. To this day, three of them are still under house arrest, although the only evidence against them - according to lawyers - is an illegally obtained and illegally broadcast recording of a meeting in the premises of the opposition party. The six are still in exile.
15. March 2025. At a large protest in Belgrade, which was organized by students and attended by hundreds of thousands of people, the police used acoustic weapons against the demonstrators along Kralja Milana Street. At first, the authorities claimed that they did not possess any "sound cannon", but it was soon established that this was untrue. There is still controversy surrounding the case, but the final word seems to have come from United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Jill Edwards, who said that some sort of acoustic weapon was definitely used during the rally in Belgrade. There are indications that the weapons were used on the orders of the top of the state, with the aim of sending a message that the regime is ready to do anything to preserve power. Ten days after this gathering, the so-called Ćaciland, a tent city of "students who want to learn" in Belgrade's Pioneer Park, which still stands in its place. On the morning of March 15, thugs in black marched through the streets of Belgrade in large groups towards Ćaciland, demonstrating force and intimidating citizens. Apparently they get paid decently for it. At the invitation of the students, after this protest, the formation of citizens' assemblies began.
April 2025. In order to internationalize the protest, the students are cycling towards Strasbourg, then running towards Brussels, wanting to present their struggle to the European institutions, pointing out that it is in line with European values and asking the EU to stop supporting the corrupt autocrat. During the month, the protests of educational workers continue, the schools are on strike. Educators and parents showed solidarity with the students. Teachers bore the brunt of the rebellion. In recent months, because of this, they have suffered numerous consequences - many have lost their jobs.
5. May . After assessing that none of their demands were met (besides the four initial demands, the students subsequently demanded an investigation into the use of a sound cannon, but also demanded the responsibility of Aleksandar Vučić, who, together with journalists, blundered into the intensive care unit of the University Clinical Center of Serbia in order to visit the injured in the fire in Kočani in North Macedonia, thus violating protocols and endangering the lives of patients), the students officially requested extraordinary parliamentary elections. All the previous ones joined that request.
28. June . years. Great Vidovdan protest in Belgrade. A huge number of people on the streets, there is a conflict with the police. At least 77 participants were detained after the rally. The police showed brutality, which they will demonstrate until today.
Leto 2025. Police brutality becomes the main news from all the protests that take place throughout Serbia during the summer. The police work together with uniformed or non-uniformed progressive "activists". The distinction between police and criminals has been completely erased. Students and other citizens are brutally beaten, arrested, detained, medieval methods of abuse are applied. Numerous injuries of demonstrators were recorded - fractures, head injuries, beatings. Minors are also targeted. Police violence was recorded in Zemun, at colleges across the country, in Užice, Vrbas, Bačka Palanka, Valjevo... Many offices of the SNS and other ruling parties throughout the country were demolished. By order of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) on August 1, 11 people were arrested, among them former ministers Tomislav Momirović and the ailing Vesić, for corruption in connection with the reconstruction of the Novi Sad station and the Belgrade-Budapest railway. Soon after that, the MUP Task Force for Investigating Money Laundering, which worked on this case in cooperation with TOK, was disbanded.
photo: marija jankovićUNREMEMBERED POLICE BRUTALITY: Novi Sad, September 5, 2025.
5. September. The police, on the order of President Vučić (of which he himself bragged), used the most brutal mass violence against the demonstrators in Novi Sad. What happened on the streets of this city surprised even the most pessimistic. Senior citizens were beaten, journalists were abused, tear gas and stun grenades were used, and even illegal chemical agents were used. The reason for the mega-violence was given by two unidentified bilmes who attacked the police with some kind of sticks. It is believed to have been part of a progressive plan. They appeared out of the darkness and disappeared into the darkness. After this protest, the regime's propaganda began to intensively use conspiracy theories to explain the causes of the fall of the canopy. Allegedly, it was a diversion whose goal was to overthrow the government in Serbia. Vučić accuses Novi Sad councilor and builder Misha Bachulov of diversion, which causes countless jokes on social networks. The conspiracy theories are in complete contradiction to all the evidence collected by the investigating authorities so far.
15. October 2025. The commission of inquiry to investigate the responsibility for the fall of the canopy, which is made up of university professors and other experts from various fields, and which for months "combed" the documentation on the reconstruction of the Railway Station in Novi Sad - determined that the fall of the canopy was "to blame for an organized criminal group headed by President Vučić".
