Sawt Falasteen - Serbia's students gather signatures for early elections goal

A wave of large-scale student-led protests has gripped Serbia since November 2024, after the collapse of a railway station roof killed 16 people in Novi Sad, the country’s second-largest city.

The tragedy at the newly renovated station became a symbol of entrenched corruption, with demands for a transparent investigation escalating into calls for early elections -- which have so far been rejected by authorities.

"We are counting to get a rough idea of how many people support us," Jana, a first-year philosophy student, told AFP in Belgrade, while staffing one of nearly 500 stands nationwide. She declined to give her last name.

After a more than a year of faculty blockades, protests drawing hundreds of thousands of people, and awareness-raising marches across the country, students were now engaging passers-by at the stands, collecting their signatures and contact details.

For Branimir Jovancevic, 63, the new approach was more effective than organising a large rally.

"It is meant to show how many citizens in Serbia support calling elections," he said after giving his contact details to students in central Belgrade.

"Too much time has passed, and no one has been held accountable," said Eva Manojevic, 24.

So far, three investigations have been launched into the fatal canopy collapse, but only one has resulted in an indictment confirmed by a court.

However, the court ruled on Wednesday that there were no grounds to further prosecute the former construction minister who was suspected of a "serious crime against public safety".

- A new phase -

Nebojsa Vladisavljevic, a political science professor, saw the students entering "a new phase of mobilisation".

"The goal is to turn the support gained through protests into votes and an electoral victory," he said.

Vladisavljevic expected a new organisation to arise that would be able "to carry an election campaign" and eventually "take part in governing after the elections".

The students said they would announce the survey results in the coming days.

So far, the only indicator of the strength of the student movement has been the number of people attending protests and a handful of opinion polls.

A September survey by independent election watchdog CRTA suggested that candidates backed by the student movement could secure 44 percent of the vote.

The survey also found that nearly two-thirds of citizens, regardless of political affiliation, see snap elections as a way out of the crisis.

But a separate poll conducted the same month by Ipsos, which did not include a potential student-backed list, found that the ruling party would win 48 per cent of the vote, virtually unchanged from its 2023 result.

Public uproar over the Novi Sad disaster triggered the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of the government earlier this year.

However, a new cabinet was formed through a reshuffle, and President Aleksandar Vucic said elections would not be held before late 2026, accusing them of attempting to overthrow the government.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST