Thousands of people have gathered in Serbia to protest against the government Objections

The student-led group, which started after the Novi Sad railway accident in November 2024, is pushing for early elections.

Thousands of people, led by university students, gathered in the Serbian capital to protest against the government and call for early elections.

The Novi Sad train disaster in November 2024, which killed 16 people, sparked anti-corruption protests, called for an open investigation, and forced former Prime Minister Milos Vucevic to resign.

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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic after that he pushed back hard against the opposition.

With students leading the anti-corruption movement, the protests have been campaigning to force Vucic to call early elections.

Vucic said this week that the vote could take place between September and November this year.

‘Students win’

Protesters flocked to the central square in the capital, Belgradefrom several angles, many carrying banners and wearing T-shirts written with the words “Students win” of the youth group.

Many cars entered Belgrade from other Serbian towns in the past.

Protester Maja Milas Markovic said the students “were able to gather us here with their youth and incredible strength; I believe we have the (right) to live a good life.”

Serbia’s state-owned railway company canceled all trains to and from Belgrade on Saturday, in an attempt to prevent some people from leaving other parts of the Balkan country.

Vucic’s loyalists, meanwhile, gathered in a park camp outside the Serbian presidential palace where he launched another mass anti-government rally in March as a public shield against the opposition. At a fenced-in area surrounded by riot police, folk songs rang out.

Students have said that their meeting will be peaceful. But there are concerns about violent clashes with Vucic’s supporters, who often wear helmets and masks and have attacked protesters in the past.

The protests “have great support from the public, and that’s because it’s a whole group … against the government,” Tetyana Kekic, a journalist in Belgrade, told Al Jazeera.

He said the difficulty for the protesters is that they do not have “an agenda or political agenda… and they do not have a leader or a personality that can challenge the president”.

Serbia wants to join the EU

The Serbian president has faced international scrutiny for his crackdown on protests.

The Council of Europe’s human rights chief, Michael O’Flaherty, criticized the Serbian government in a report this week and said he would “assess the situation” on Saturday.

Serbia wants to join the European Union, but has maintained close ties with Russia and China.

The backsliding of democracy under Vucic could cost the country about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8bn) in European Union funding, the EU’s enlargement chief warned last month.

Saturday’s venue is Belgrade’s Slavija Square, the site of the largest anti-government protests in March 2025. That meeting ended with a sudden disruption that experts later said – and the government denied – included the use of a sonic weapon against peaceful demonstrations.

Students now say they are planning to challenge Vucic in the run-up to elections later this year or next, which they hope will oust the right-wing government.

Vucic, government officials, and pro-government media have called the opposition “terrorists” and foreign agents bent on destroying the country – rhetoric that has fueled political disunity.