In Serbia, a very different student movement just ousted another European strongman

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Another one of eastern Europe’s authoritarian leaders has been vanquished by an upstart movement, with Serbia’s long-term president Aleksandar Vucic unexpectedly losing out to a student-led campaign.

While young people elsewhere in Europe, especially in France and Italy, have taken to the streets to demand better schooling and opportunities in recent weeks, the Serbian students’ movement had very different origins and goals – and remarkable staying power. It was also a movement more of students in their 20s, rather than their teens – though high school students also became involved.

It was also well-disciplined. And despite the government’s efforts to suggest otherwise, it did not include a fringe that sought out confrontation – nor an element more interested in looting.

The rise of the Serbian student movement began two years ago in the most unlikely of circumstances.

A canopy at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed in November 2024 , killing 15 people, including two children.

The tragedy, caused by shoddy construction, triggered an outpouring of anger over corruption, the government’s lack of accountability and negligence.

The protests began with symbolic events. Each Friday the deaths were commemorated with a 15-minute silence, starting at 11:52 a.m. local time, the exact time when the canopy collapsed.

When student vigils were harshly dealt with by police, the protests became a campaign. In March last year, more than 300,000 people filled the streets of the capital, Belgrade.

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In some ways, the student movement emulated US civil rights protests in the 1960s. In January last year, students from Belgrade decided to walk the 100-kilometer (62-mile) distance to join their colleagues from the University of Novi Sad in blocking three city bridges.

“By carrying copies of the Constitution with them, the students sought to remind everyone of their fight,” wrote Katarina Beširević of the University of Belgrade, referencing a cycling campaign student demonstrators conducted where they carried copies of country’s Constitution.

It was also very inclusive. “A key distinguishing feature of the student movement is its commitment to building civic solidarity across religious, ethnic , and regional divides. This includes, for instance, the active inclusion of Muslim and Bosniak students, with respect for their religious identity,” wrote Marta Szpala at the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.

Long marches across the country also enabled the students to voice their cause in smaller towns and villages, where people were unaware of the protestors’ aims because of the state’s stranglehold on the media.

The movement’s goals soon morphed into something greater. Having begun wanting justice for the victims of Novi Sad, it became about rescuing democracy and civil society from rampant corruption, from elections marked by intimidation and surveillance, and from stifling state control over the media.

In that respect it was fundamentally different from student protests elsewhere in Europe.

The demonstrations were then institutionalized through the creation of the Students’ List, which scored a stunning victory over Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party at the polls on Sunday.

There are strong parallels with Hungary, where strongman Viktor Orbán was defeated earlier this year. Both he and Vucic were in power for more than a decade, were friendly toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, and had gathered immense power through control of the media and corporations.

Vucic indeed borrowed from Putin’s playbook, seeking to pivot from president to prime minister when prevented by the Constitution from running again - and playing heavily on Serbian nationalism.

Last month, Ratko Mladić , a Bosnian Serb commander convicted of crimes against humanity during the Yugoslav wars, was given a funeral with military honors in Belgrade.

There are also parallels between Serbia and Ukraine, where protests by tens of thousands of mainly young people in 2014 ultimately toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych amid massive corruption and his refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU.

That spontaneous movement feared Ukraine was drifting back into Moscow’s orbit and wanted the country’s identity to be European. It also saw a state that lacked transparency and accountability.

Likewise, Serbian protesters asserted their program was “European” in demanding the development of democratic institutions, an independent judiciary, media freedom and the protection of civil liberties.

In Serbia’s case, the evolution of the students’ movement may carry lessons for others.

“Volunteers organized into working groups to coordinate logistics, safety, legal aid and digital communications. IT students developed encrypted platforms for secure communication and coordination, while law students and attorneys created a legal-response network to assist detained protesters,” wrote Breza Race Maksimovic and Srdja Popovic in the Journal of Democracy last year.

It resulted in a “decentralized yet highly coordinated nature,” they added. “This mobilization is leaderless by design. Student assemblies operate on a horizontal model, organizing nightly plenary meetings to propose, debate, and vote on tactics.”

That may have worked well in the face of an authoritarian state; there were no leaders to arrest. But it will be hard to transform into government. And it’s a world apart from the tightly disciplined Hungarian opposition party under Péter Magyar.

The challenges ahead for this neophyte movement are daunting. It has few candidates with any experience of governing. The list of candidates for the election was made up of little-known academics, lawyers, athletes, farmers and artists.

It will, however,have the support of the European Union. Congratulating the List on its victory, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday: “We stand ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and strong democratic institutions.”

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东欧又一位威权领导人被新兴运动击败，塞尔维亚长期总统亚历山大·武契奇出人意料地败给了学生领导的运动。

近几周来，欧洲其他地区，尤其是法国和意大利的年轻人纷纷走上街头，要求改善教育和增加机会，而塞尔维亚学生运动的起源和目标却截然不同，并且拥有惊人的持久力。这场运动的参与者也主要是二十多岁的学生，而非十几岁的青少年——尽管也有高中生参与其中。

它纪律严明。尽管政府极力否认，但事实上，它既没有寻求对抗的边缘群体，也没有热衷于抢劫的分子。

塞尔维亚学生运动的兴起始于两年前一个最不可能的情况下。

2024 年 11 月，北部城市诺维萨德火车站的顶棚倒塌，造成 15 人死亡，其中包括两名儿童。

这场由劣质建筑造成的悲剧引发了民众对腐败、政府缺乏问责制和玩忽职守的强烈愤怒。

抗议活动最初以象征性活动开始。每周五，人们都会默哀15分钟，悼念遇难者，默哀时间从当地时间上午11点52分开始，这正是天篷坍塌的确切时间。

当学生守夜活动遭到警方严厉镇压时，抗议活动演变成了一场运动。去年三月，超过三十万人涌上首都贝尔格莱德的街头。

奥利弗·布尼克/法新社/法新社来自盖蒂图片社

在某些方面，这场学生运动效仿了 20 世纪 60 年代的美国民权运动。去年 1 月，贝尔格莱德的学生决定步行 100 公里（62 英里），与诺维萨德大学的同学们一起封锁三座城市桥梁。

贝尔格莱德大学的卡塔琳娜·贝希雷维奇写道：“学生们随身携带宪法副本，是为了提醒所有人他们的斗争。”她指的是学生示威者开展的一项自行车运动，他们在运动中携带了国家宪法副本。

它也极具包容性。“学生运动的一个关键特征是致力于跨越宗教、种族和地域界限，建立公民团结。例如，这包括积极吸纳穆斯林和波斯尼亚克学生，并尊重他们的宗教身份，”华沙东方研究中心的玛尔塔·斯帕拉写道。

全国各地的长途游行也让学生们有机会在较小的城镇和乡村表达他们的诉求，由于国家对媒体的严密控制，这些地方的人们并不了解抗议者的目标。

该运动的目标很快演变成更宏大的目标。最初，它是为了给诺维萨德的受害者伸张正义，后来，它变成了要将民主和公民社会从猖獗的腐败、充斥着恐吓和监视的选举以及国家对媒体的压制性控制中拯救出来。

从这个意义上讲，它与欧洲其他地方的学生抗议活动有着根本的不同。

随后，示威活动通过学生名单的成立而制度化，该党在周日的选举中以惊人的胜利击败了武契奇的塞尔维亚进步党。

这与匈牙利的情况有很多相似之处，匈牙利强人维克托·欧尔班今年早些时候被击败。他和武契奇都执政超过十年，都与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京关系友好，并通过控制媒体和企业积累了巨大的权力。

武契奇确实借鉴了普京的策略，试图在宪法禁止他再次竞选总统的情况下，从总统转型为总理——并且大力利用塞尔维亚民族主义。

上个月，因在南斯拉夫战争期间犯下反人类罪而被定罪的波斯尼亚塞族指挥官拉特科·姆拉迪奇在贝尔格莱德被授予军葬荣誉。

塞尔维亚和乌克兰之间也有相似之处。2014 年，数万名主要由年轻人组成的抗议活动最终推翻了亲俄总统维克托·亚努科维奇，原因是他存在大规模腐败，并且拒绝与欧盟签署联系国协定。

这种自发运动担心乌克兰正在重新落入莫斯科的势力范围，希望国家认同欧洲身份。他们也认为乌克兰缺乏透明度和问责制。

同样，塞尔维亚抗议者声称他们的纲领是“欧洲式的”，他们要求发展民主制度、建立独立的司法机构、保障媒体自由和保护公民自由。

塞尔维亚学生运动的发展历程或许能为其他国家提供借鉴。

“志愿者们组成工作小组，负责协调后勤、安全、法律援助和数字通信。信息技术专业的学生开发了用于安全通信和协调的加密平台，而法学院学生和律师则创建了一个法律援助网络，以帮助被拘留的抗议者，”布雷扎·雷斯·马克西莫维奇和斯尔贾·波波维奇去年在《民主杂志》上写道。

他们补充说，这造就了一种“去中心化但高度协调”的局面。“这种动员方式刻意避免领导者。学生集会采用横向模式运作，每晚组织全体会议，提出、辩论并投票表决策略。”

面对专制国家，这种做法或许行之有效；毕竟没有领导人需要逮捕。但要将其转化为执政党，则难上加难。而且，这与彼得·马扎尔领导下纪律严明的匈牙利反对党截然不同。

这个新兴运动面临的挑战十分艰巨。其候选人中几乎没有执政经验。参选名单上的候选人大多是名不见经传的学者、律师、运动员、农民和艺术家。

不过，它将得到欧盟的支持。欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩周一祝贺该名单获胜，并表示：“我们随时准备支持在法治、媒体自由、反腐败和强大的民主制度方面进行的改革。”