The Political Awakening of Serbia's Youth

Serbian Party Leader, Aleksandar Cvetković, gives a tour-de-force of the current protests in Serbia: Their origins, the internal fallout they have caused, and their geopolitical implications.

Since November 2024, Serbia has been engulfed by significant anti-corruption protests, primarily led by university students. The movement began after a tragic incident in Novi Sad, where the collapse of a railway station canopy resulted in 15 deaths. This event ignited widespread public outrage over alleged government corruption and negligence. A symbol of the disaster, a bloody red handprint has become the unofficial banner of the protests. Various high-ranking resignations have followed since November. Protesters are, however, still on the streets and the movement’s fervor does not seem to have dampened the slightest.

TLR has spoken with Serbian Party Leader, Aleksandar Cvetković to learn more about the protests: Their origins, the internal fallout they have caused, and their potentially geopolitical implications. Cvetković is the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO): A centre-right political party in Serbia. SPO was the main party in opposition to Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in the 90s and has traditionally championed a pro-European path for Serbia.

If you were to describe the origins of the current protests ongoing in Serbia what would they be?

The origin of the protests is a people dissatisfied. In Serbia, all of our successive governments or regimes have lasted for only about 10 years. Milosevic’s regime lasted from 1990 to 2000. The successive Democratic Party governments lasted together from 2001 until 2012. Afterwards, Serbian Progressive Party rule started in 2012 and now it's 2025. It’s a bit over time. You could say they are overdue for a change. You can feel that many people are dissatisfied for many, many reasons. Often completely diverging ones. We have people who are dissatisfied because the Kosovo question hasn’t been resolved yet diplomatically. Marching alongside them are people who are dissatisfied with any further acknowledgement of Kosovo’s autonomy. Completely different opinions. Amongst them are also pro- EU citizens and pro Russian protestors. What they share is that they are against the regime - against the government.

You speak of a general outrage. Was there a specific event that sparked the protests?

The specific trigger for the start of the protests was a major catastrophe at the train station in Novi Sad. Its concrete roof collapsed which caused the death of 15 people. The catastrophe in itself, but also the lack of justice following it, gave you a sense of corruption, a sense of irresponsibility. All of these things have been present over the years, but now you see this terrible thing happen.

Somebody is responsible but no one has answered for it. Where there should have been swift institutional legal justice, there was none. The response should have been stronger. It’s not just a political issue. It’s really about the basic workings of the Serbian state. Is a state like that sufficiently ready to maintain European legal institutions? To ensure the rule of law? Does it keep responsible individuals accountable? That is the main topic of these protests. And it is this ineptitude that this new generation - your generation - simply does not accept. That was a key trigger for the ongoing protests.

So we have a beginning: a train station roof collapsing due to possibly some contractor cutting corners. This is then fused with a general frustration among especially younger Serbs who are dissatisfied with the country’s institutions. Is that correct?

Correct. Because the response made by all levels of government was inadequate and not as quick as it should have been. It wasn’t focused on the problems at hand. It’s now been three months. Nonetheless, we still haven’t seen any ‘real’ responsibility being taken. The government keeps acting like everything is okay. True, after all these months of protests, in the last days we have seen some officials resign, but unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough and it is really for many reasons too late…

As you mention, several high-ranking officials such as Prime Minister Miloš Vučević have resigned. Could you specify what the government’s response has been and if we are likely to see more significant resignations in the future?

I don't see much space for further resignations. After the resignation of the Prime Minister, there is only one more significant resignation that could happen: the resignation of the President of Serbia. But talking to student protesters, it doesn’t seem to be their main goal. The ones that I have spoken to, tell me that they don’t see the catastrophe as being his responsibility and that they don’t direct their demands towards the institution of the Head of State. So I'm not sure we would see something like that happen. But no one can really tell what time will bring to us.

On November 8th - just a few days after the November 1st Tragedy at the train station - I wrote an article for the magazine Politika. In that article, I wrote that Serbia needs more responsible and decent people. Because in that week and subsequent time, we didn't have any satisfactory response from the government. They tried to minimize the whole thing to say: “okay, it happened, but we are not responsible”.

Time will tell who is really responsible. But unfortunately, Pandora's box has now opened. And after it’s opened, you cannot go and just say: “Okay, shut it down”. You cannot shut it down.

I can see that the protests have spread to many regions and municipalities. Only 4 of Serbia’s 280 municipalities have not seen any protests. Interestingly, President Vučić has also commented on the protesters, calling them an internal enemy, supported by outside actors aiming to destabilize and dismember Serbia. What do you make of this?

Yes, unfortunately, that has been one of his responses. For me, that shouldn’t be happening. Because when you speak about an ‘inside enemy’ or ‘outside enemy’ that also doesn’t shine particularly well on you. By doing so, you acknowledge that your country is not strong enough or that you don’t have the ruling method to stop that - that you are actually weak. If somebody is an enemy of the state, you should have legal institutions to deal with that, making it less of a political issue.

What does he intend to gain then by using this rhetoric?

Well … that has always been the rhetoric here in Serbia. We are used to that from our communist past. Both the inside and the outside enemy part. In the age of Yugoslavia, everybody in the West was our outside enemies. Inside there were also enemies. And besides, after a point, the outside enemy was also to the east. As such, during Yugoslavia, there were all kinds of enemies. But actually, it was just to keep the one-party state, the communist party, in power.

After Tito died, that same communist regime collapsed. But unfortunately, we saw a similar thing happening. That many people adored and worshipped one man - whoever he was. Setting aside their critical thinking, not knowing what policy was actually being conducted. This cult of personality was, and still is, a huge problem. Because then you have one man, and everybody who is against that one man is the enemy. That is not good in political terms and it’s not healthy for a democracy. It's something that divides people. It divides society. When you have a divided society - pro and contra - you can divide and conquer. You can rule, but it's not for a good cause and it’s inherently unstable: It could well end today, tomorrow, next year, or the year after that.

Society needs to be stronger, knit together and to understand what's the main issues at stake. It's like with a small kid. You can’t always intimidate it. You can’t always speak in a hard tone to it: “that everything is bad, that everybody is against us”. You cannot do that for a long period of time. The kid grows.

How have the protests impacted Serbian society?

Last night, I read an article where the Rector of Belgrade University, Vladan Đokić, wrote about the protests. There is one sentence in particular I will read to you:

“Death, injustice, and violence woke up the empathy, solidarity, and love for justice in young people in whose future we had doubted”.

This sentence is at the core of what is going on. You now have students, young people, who are showing to all of us, that they are awake. That they care for Serbia. That they don’t just want to go out in Europe - they are in Europe. They are here – but in Europe. When we last met in October in Geneva there was nothing going on in Serbia - then everything changed. I told you how young people are the key to the future and that young people possess the energy to change society. Look what happened: a few days later I came back to Serbia and saw that exact thing materialize.

So if I understand you correctly, these students, as you see them, are a politically aware, but also a fractured group in terms of political views and priorities. With regards to the EU, however, are the protesters more pro-Europe? And could the protests lead to the Serbian government seeking closer ties to the EU?

Actually they are not. At least not openly. But I am quite certain that if they manage to express their demands and if those demands end up being realized, they could end up pushing Serbia in a pro-European way. Maybe some of them don’t want to be a part of the EU, but with time they could become more pro-EU, as what they do is essentially pro-European. In essence, it’s quite paradoxical. But it is an important thing to keep in mind that it's not a homogenous structure of students. Nonetheless, they share an idea: that they need their country back and that legal institutions need to work for everybody, not just for the few.

Back from who?

You see, you have to understand something. Nowadays, it's this government. But before that, it was very, very similar with the other parties. So it's something that these young people are used to. That it's not good, it's not equal, it's not justice, there is no justice. What has changed is that they are politically idealist now, and that is really, really great.

Because we need, all of us need a more idealistic approach. Because during these years, all of us are becoming more and more distant from our ideals. And for politics, you have to have ideals.

In just a couple of sentences. Where do you see these protests going?

Yeah, that's a question of million dollars. That's something nobody can tell you right now. If the protests and public opinion go towards the opposition, they go towards asking President Vucic to resign as the main beacon of this government. But if you ask many people who are attending the protests or people who are dissatisfied but are not involved in protests, we need to start a dialogue with the government to improve on issues such as living costs and better conditions for elections. I'm not sure. What I know is that we can’t have a revolution. For a revolution, you need something more. In reality, it’s tragic if you need a revolution. It's not good for any system or any country to have. If you aim at peacefully resolving this, then you have to start working together with the government. You have to work together with the opposition. To see the light at the end of the tunnel and move forward. Opposition parties here tend to just put obstacles in the way of the government, blocking policy.

For me, this is actually a good political moment because these students go across Serbia and they show people that there is liberty; that there is freedom; that you can speak different than the regime. That you can even speak different than the opposition parties. You are free to speak. And that is something that this society needed.

So you’re optimistic about them?

I'm partly optimistic. I'm partly optimistic because I think that this is something that our society needed to be liberated from...

From what?

The swamp. To be liberated from a swamp where everything is stable, stagnated, a status quo. There are more people now who feel they are a part of something and that is good.

So would it be right to say that it has caused a new mobilization in Serbian politics? A political awakening of sorts.

You’re totally right. You have to awaken people to start thinking about politics. Because during past years, they didn't think about anything related to politics, because the only two options were: you are either for the government or you are against it. It's not good. You have to be for programs, for ideas, for projects. So we have something very good going on in Serbia. Notwithstanding that, we have also made great progress in recent years with initiatives such as the Open Balkan Project and we are also preparing for Expo 2027.

That's leads me to my next question. The SNS government has championed these initiatives in recent years. Also including the Kosovo-Serbia normalization agreement of 2020. Are these protests in any way endangering these initiatives? Suppose they for instance turn violent.

If they turn violent, that is something that is not good for Serbia, of course. It also isn’t good for the region as a whole, as we need space for improving ourselves. We need space and peace for more economic development. We don’t have time to fight again as we fought in the former Yugoslavia. We need peace, we need stability.

But of course, you have to understand that also the protests themselves are endangering some kind of project at home because economic stability suffers, when people aren’t going to school for three months, when they are not going to their faculty, when the streets of Serbia are blocked, shops are closed and there is general strike.

Everybody is in some kind of chaos, a little bit chaos, chaotic. In that atmosphere, all good things are also in danger. But, you know, as I spoke about earlier, you need political issues and you need to resolve political issues. That is something that a good government does.

So they are shaking up economic stability in Serbia?

You see, this is the issue. Our government is now preoccupied with these protests. Our government has resigned. We need to see if there are new elections or new government. So that is how these projects could be endangered. Because you have that kind of instability. It's not tragic. Of course, it's not tragic. But it is something that you cannot do some good things because you have to do some other good things.

Are early elections on the table?

Well, perhaps there will be elections. We still don’t know. Because the SNS are waiting for when its convenient for them, I think. But it could either be new elections or a new government. Because they have enough MPs to elect a new government. But who knows, maybe new elections are upon us. My party, the Serbian Renewal Movement is proposing totally new laws for the elections, organizing elections with different number of electoral constituencies, with everything new.

Over the last decade in Serbia, we have seen a great deal of democratic backsliding: crack-downs on the free press, election irregularities, state funds being used to finance SNS campaigns. When protests broke out in 2023 against this, the Serbian government complained that Europe was trying to orchestrate a Maidan revolution in Serbia. The Russian ambassador supported this rhetoric. Serbia seems to be caught between two blocs. And in a tumultous new world order where countries are increasingly forced to pick a side, where do you see Serbia's future geopolitically?

That is a really complex issue and a complex question. I think that we need to stop pretending, as Serbs, to be part of the East to the West and part of the West to the East. Serbia has to be where it is. It’s in Europe. And Europe in my eyes is united, despite Mr. Trump’s influence and differences now in the transatlantic coalition.

I think that what we really need to see is that we are part of Europe. So we have to stay on the European path. And what does that mean? It means that we need to be more open to all of Europe’s institutions. You know, for example, the European Parliament is the parliament of our continent. We have to understand that there are eurosceptics, even inside the EU, but they are still ‘inside’. If someone in Serbia wants to be eurosceptic, they also have to understand that the future of Serbia is in the EU. You can be more pro-European. You can also be more nationally focused European. But all of us are Europeans.

I don’t follow. Why does Serbia’s future have to be in Europe? How come you can’t go at it alone?

Because I don't see any other alternative. There is a willingness of many people in Serbia to be an ally of Russia. Not just Putin’s Russia but Russia in general. That is a sentiment that goes back centuries, not only these last decades. However, we’re on the European continent. You know, I have this saying when I’m asked if I’m pro-NATO. I just say: “Look at the map”. If you look at the map of Europe, you will see that around Serbia, all countries are in NATO. So our national interest is to be friendly with all of our neighbors because if we are not friendly then we have a problem.

The same can be said about the EU. It serves as a vessel to solve problems. Even when states have disagreements, the EU can manage those problems with diplomacy. It can manage them with politics or by spreading European values and cohesion. Unfortunately, Serbia has lost 30 years of European past and present, because we used to work against it. That is something that I think that in the near future we need to do - to reconnect with Europe.

Why has Serbia been working against EU accession in your opinion? Is it because of the vested interests of an elite? Is is due to Russian influence?

It’s a mixture. A mixture of everything. It's partly due to our legacy as a post-communist country. Because during the communist period we were something different than Bulgaria, Romania, or the rest of the Eastern bloc. Coupled with the fact that we were taught, as other communists, that the West was evil, that capitalism was evil. We were different, but not so different. So that communist past is still inside of many of our generations.

Another thing of note is the influence of the Secret Service from the communist times. We’re actually the only country that hasn’t opened up its Secret Service dossiers of the communist period to the people. We don't know which of our leaders did what during thethat time. We don't know who in our intellectual elite was actually associates of the communist regime, or agents of the Secret Service. So that adds to the mixture.

And of course, there is the influence of these Russian interests, because they have an interest in maintaining their presence in the Balkans. China also has influence in Serbia and its own economic interests that are very different from those of the EU.

So there are many, many influences. A mixture of everything. And unfortunately our democratic institutions are also very young. Although we have had a democracy for 35 years now, it has been plagued by a series of problems. Milosevic’s wars, UN sanctions, and the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia, coupled with the geopolitical interests I just mentioned.

We are a very fragile and young democracy. So we need support from Europe and we need support from our allies.

Do you find it probable that in a potential new European reality where the US is less involved in European affairs, Serbia would be more willing to accept integration with a Europe that is decoupled from the US?

Trump will somehow leave Europe. At least to some degree. But I still think that you get to Brussels faster by Washington than by Moscow. Still. Mr. Trump will certainly try to make his own agenda. He will do so with China, with Russia. He will try to do his best. But we in Serbia need to be allies with the United States, regardless of who is in the White House. And we in Serbia also need to be allies with our continent and our house. Our house is Europe. If you have a fire in your house, you don’t just go outside. You will try to put the fire out. And afterwards, if you don't manage to do it, you will ask your neighbour for help. So we need to work together in the region, we need to work together in Europe. This is our house.

So if we were to sum up our conversation here, it is that Serbia is a young democracy; it's been plagued by turmoil, which has caused political apathy within the young population who has finally had a political awakening because of an abrupt event that caused a massive shock around the country. Is that more or less correct?

Yep, that's it. You managed to say everything in just one sentence.