BELGRADE -- As Serbian students mark the first anniversary of a fatal building collapse at a railway station that sparked massive nationwide protests, there are signs that far-right nationalist groups have sought to infiltrate and even hijack the movement.
Early demands for political accountability, followed by calls for the resignation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and new elections, have been complemented with strong anti-Kosovo rhetoric.
“I’m proud when we fight for our national interests -- for Kosovo and Metohija,” one protester, who identified himself only as Stefan, told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service. He was using a term favored by the Serbian government, which does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
The year-long student protests are the largest in Serbia since demonstrations that led to the toppling of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic 25 years ago.
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One Year After Novi Sad Train Station Collapse, Families Still Wait for Justice
The protests began after the collapse of a railway station roof in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. The tragedy killed 16 people and shocked the public amid reports that corrupt practices led to shoddy construction at the railway station, a flagship government project led by Chinese businesses.
The demonstrations were marked by a commitment to strict political neutrality, focusing on calls for a thorough investigation and keeping a distance from both ruling and opposition parties.
The Far-Right Gets Involved
The first major rightward shift came on June 28, on the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje, a charged date in Serbian politics that was used by nationalists to justify the Balkan wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
During a protest that day, speakers made calls to “defend the Serbian people” outside the country’s borders, apparently referring to large ethnic Serbian communities in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“Speakers were chosen to highlight both the movement’s diversity and the idea of national unity,” an electrical engineering student from Belgrade, who declined to be named, told RFE/RL.
Other people who had taken part in protests felt alienated by the rhetoric.
“These are not the values I stand for. If they want my support or my vote, they need to clearly distance themselves from that rhetoric,” said a woman who gave her name only as Milica.
Milos, a man in his fifties who has been joining anti-government protests since the 1990s, said that “after cooling down” he understood the speeches as “a populist move -- an attempt to reach broader audiences ahead of possible elections.”
SEE ALSO: First She Fought Milosevic, Now This Serbian Writer Joins Anti-Vucic ProtestsThe student call for early elections has not been successful. But ahead of scheduled local ballots in October, the heat turned up again.
Law students in Belgrade organized a rally demanding accountability for "violations of Serbian rights" in Kosovo. On social media, organizers accused Serbia’s government of "betraying Kosovo."
Ultra-nationalist and far-right groups -- some of them banned by Serbia’s Constitutional Court -- appeared alongside students, although only about 1,000 people attended. This was far fewer than at many other protests.
Serbian Muslims March
Shortly afterwards, a European Parliament resolution condemned what it called “nationalist narratives” in parts of the protest movement.
"The right is absolutely trying to take over the protests, but it's not that big. It's just louder and better organized," Dusko Radosavljevic, a professor at the law and business faculty at the University of Novi Sad, told RFE/RL.
He added that the appearance of extremist groups at demonstrations was often staged.
“These are frequently provocations organized by security services on the state payroll, meant to create confusion,” he said.
Students from Serbia's mostly Muslim Sandzak region protest in Belgrade as part of a march to Novi Sad on October 28.
"In a divided society like ours, many students still can't tell the difference between healthy patriotism and nationalism," said Boris Kojcinovic, a philosophy student from Novi Sad. He recalled nationalists grabbing European Union flags from protesters but added: "I feel most of us are here for one goal -- to build a healthy society."
Students March To Novi Sad
That message has also resonated in Sandzak, a region in southwestern Serbia with a Muslim majority.
Marching under the message "You Won’t Divide Us," students from Sandzak made a 400-kilometer protest march to Novi Sad, arriving on November 1, to mark the anniversary.
A welcome ceremony lasted for more than four hours. The largest group -- nearly 4,000 students who had walked about 80 kilometers from Belgrade -- marched into Novi Sad shortly before midnight.
“The feeling is incredible -- this number of people, this amount of positive energy, and love in the air is something that can’t be described in words. It simply has to be experienced,” Marija, a student from Novi Pazar, told RFE/RL.
Vladimir Lekic, who came from Mladenovac, near Belgrade, to welcome the students in Novi Sad, told RFE/RL that in “normal countries,” the protesters’ demands “would have been met long ago, and the demonstrations would already be over.”
“Here, people have to give their last atom of strength to get anything done. This is a great student sacrifice — we’ll see what comes of it,” he said.
Vucic on October 31 appealed for a peaceful commemoration and urged protesters to engage in dialogue. He acknowledged that "many people have made mistakes over the past year," including himself, and his government declared November 1 day of national mourning.
During mass protests in March, Vucic acknowledged the "enormous negative energy and anger" directed at authorities and said that "we will have to change ourselves."
However, student groups have not been quieted, citing a lack of progress on reforms and on holding those responsible for the Novi Sad disaster accountable.