Thousands of protesters in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and other cities marked 11 months since the collapse of the canopy of the Novi Sad railway station, killing 16 people and seriously injuring one, BTA reported
The memorial gatherings took the form of a procession along pre-announced routes.
The traditional 16 minutes of silence in memory of the victims were observed throughout Serbia today at 11:52 a.m. local time (12:52 p.m. Bulgarian time).
In Novi Sad, tribute to the dead was paid at the railway station, where the the tragedy.
A kilometer-long column of citizens, including a number of students, set off in the Serbian capital Belgrade from the Prokop railway station, across the "Gazela" bridge to the station in the "Novi Beograd" district. The second procession was from the "Zemun" district.
In both Belgrade and Novi Sad, the protesters carried white roses.
"I don't know how it's not understood that we want early elections because we don't trust the government. Don't you notice that politicians control the judicial system?! Otherwise, there should have been convicts by now, and the case hasn't even started yet," student Marko Jovic told BTA.
"I believe that we will succeed in rebuilding Serbian society. "After this tragedy, which took 16 lives, there is no longer any room for political cynicism, corruption and silently sweeping the problems under the carpet," student Milica Gordanović told BTA.
In Niš, Kragujevac and Čačak, the marches in memory of the victims took place peacefully, without chants.
Anti-government protests led by students have been continuing in Serbia since November 2024, demanding that the authorities be held accountable for the incident in Novi Sad. In May, students demanded early elections, and in the summer, demonstrations that were mostly peaceful turned into clashes with police, riots and mass arrests. The demonstrations have become the biggest challenge to the political career of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Protesters point to corrupt practices in the government and a sloppily carried out reconstruction of the railway station as the reasons for the collapse of the canopy. The tragic incident on November 1, 2024, occurred four months after the grand opening of the renovated facility. Meanwhile, the first hearing of former Serbian Construction Minister Goran Vesic before the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime was scheduled for November 17 - more than a year after the incident. Vesic and 13 others are charged with that they caused damage to the budget of $115 million during the construction of the high-speed railway line from Novi Sad to the state border with Hungary.
The prosecutor's office said that it had been provided with the conclusions and opinion of a medical expert, which stated that Vesic's current health condition constitutes a “temporary circumstance, due to which he cannot participate in the proceedings until the end of the first week of November at the latest“.
The former transport minister, who resigned a few days after the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station, has not yet been heard, as he is undergoing treatment.
He ended up in a private hospital on the last day of July with abdominal problems - on the eve of the issuance of an arrest warrant in an investigation into corruption during the construction of the high-speed railway line.
Part of this project was the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station Sad.
In addition to suspicions that Vesic and the other defendants have damaged the state budget by $115 million through corrupt actions, the prosecution also accuses them of “receiving material benefits“ worth at least $18.7 million from the state-owned Chinese consortium CRIC&CCCC (China Railway International Co. Ltd and China Communications Construction Company Ltd.) which is building the high-speed railway line.
Representatives of the Serbian authorities signed a contract with this Chinese consortium, based on an intergovernmental agreement between Serbia and China, without announcing tenders.