Students from the Serbian city of Niš this morning set off on foot to Kragujevac, central Serbia, where another protest will be held on Saturday demanding that those responsible for the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad train station last year be identified – an incident in which 15 people died, Serbian media reported, quoted by BTA.
At the same time, groups of students from Novi Sad and Belgrade also walked the 150-kilometer route from the Serbian capital to Kragujevac.
Earlier this year, students from Belgrade walked 80 km to Novi Sad in two days to join the blockade of the city's bridges in protest on the occasion of three months since the tragedy.
For more than two months, students across Serbia have been blocking universities and organizing protests, demanding that responsibility for the incident be established, as well as for the effective work of institutions. According to the BBC Serbian service, the government has not given a satisfactory response to their demands.
The student protests have already led to serious political consequences - Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned last month, and before him two ministers left their posts.
The protesters are organizing daily actions, including a 15-minute silence in memory of the dead, and many citizens are joining them. The authorities claim to have met the students' demands, but the protesters disagree.
According to the Associated Press, daily demonstrations across Serbia have become a serious challenge for President Aleksandar Vucic.
Students, professors and deans refuse dialogue with the government, stating that their demands are mainly aimed at the prosecutor's office and the judiciary.
The protests continue, and with unconventional forms of expression - last night a group of students from Novi Sad ran all day to Belgrade, where they were greeted with a red carpet and fireworks. They crossed a symbolic red ribbon, holding their student ID cards in their hands, and carrying the Serbian constitution as a baton.
On Sunday, students from Kragujevac arrived in Belgrade, running a relay marathon to invite their colleagues to a mass protest under the title “Let's meet at the Meeting“, scheduled for February 15 – the day Serbia celebrates the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord.
Today in Belgrade, students from the Faculty of Theater Arts will hold an open lesson in front of the Ministry of Education under the title “We are giving you a lecture – a protest for education”, reports the Serbian editorial office of the regional television channel En1.
In addition to the students, theater workers are also joining the protests. They will hold a "Traveling Theater" procession, passing all the theaters in the Serbian capital, before ending their demonstration in front of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Affairs.