The Daily Populous Saturday March 15th, 2025 evening edition
Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by Landrayi

Landrayi on March 15th, 2025 at 15:18 UTC »

Protests in Serbia started after a group of ruling party hooligans attacked students during 15 minutes of silence for 15 people who died in a tragic recently renovated canopy collapsed in Novi Sad. After the government refused to bring justice and arrest people who attacked students and stop massive corruption, the students rose up and started blockades of universities together with their professors. So, all universities have been shut down in Serbia for almost 4 months. Ever since then protests have been happening and theyve been massive, but this is the largest one yet. The government has been threatening these protesters with violence but people still havent given up at all. Serbia demands change in a corrupt government that has been taking away civil and political rights for 13 years. Serbia is waking up, and hopefully others will soon join Serbia in fighting for freedom and democracy all over the world.

ChiquitaColumbo on March 15th, 2025 at 15:38 UTC »

CONTEXT

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SERBIA?

On November 1, 2024, a canopy at a railway station collapsed. The station was reconstructed and grand opened only a few months before, in a project that students allege was riddled with corruption and mismanagement, with massive amounts of money unaccounted for.

During a memorial for the victims at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, a group of men—believed to be linked to the ruling party—violently attacked students and professors. In response, students at the faculty organized an emergency plenary session where they voted on a campus blockade until those responsible were held accountable.

What started as a local protest quickly grew into a nationwide student movement. Universities across Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, and other academic hubs held similar assemblies, with students occupying their faculties and turning them into spaces for discussion, community events, and self-organized activities. They have been living on their campus buildings for 3+ months now and have sustained themselves through citizen donations, and all decisions are made collectively through open voting at faculty plenums.

The movement has four key demands:

⁠⁠Full documentation transparency on the station reconstruction project, publish everything ⁠⁠Arrests of those who attacked students ⁠⁠Dismissal of charges against protesters ⁠⁠A 20% increase in university funding

Despite attempts to install the narrative of leadership figures, students have remained leaderless by design. Every action is done through direct demokracy. Tensions continue to rise—multiple students have been injured after cars were driven into crowds.

Protests have now spread to over 300 cities across Serbia, with major demonstrations in key urban centers. Some student groups have taken to marching between towns, enduring harsh conditions while being greeted with food and support from locals along the way. They are seen as liberators in villages and towns they pass.

March 15, 2025, is expected to see the largest gathering in Serbian history, set to take place in Belgrade.

Other notable aspects of the movement:

• The blood-red hand has become the movement’s symbol. In response, ruling party supporters have painted red middle-finger symbols on schools and universities overnight.

• A counter-group called Students Who Want to Study has emerged, but many believe it to be a government-backed effort, with people paid to be there. Videos suggest that many participants aren’t actual students, and their encampment in the capital has turned into a bizarre tourist attraction.

• The government remains backed by international powers, including Russia, China, the U.S., and the EU, adding another layer of complexity to the crisis.

• Madonna reshared a story about the protests, turning her song into an unexpected soundtrack for the movement. It became a meme, since so few international figures have acknowledged what’s happening.

WHY WALK?

In Serbia, all major TV stations are government influenced. The students are marked as a violent minority, fascists, foreign funded, junkies etc.

For a large part of Serbia, this is the only information they can get.

Students are marching to large protests and demonstrations, but they’re also passing through small towns and villages where there isn’t alternative media. They’re showing the people they are not at all as advertised by the president and his media.

So it does have a purpose, in other countries it maybe is useless.

If you’ve read this far—spread the word. Please.

DeezerDB on March 15th, 2025 at 15:59 UTC »

HEY AMERICANS!!! LOOK A REAL PROTEST!!!!!