Florian Bieber
Society in motion? Protest movements in Serbia

The almost daily protests in Serbia, which have been ongoing since November 2024 and are calling for a functioning judiciary, unimpeded institutions and against corruption, are thus directed against the current government, which is considered illegitimate because it does not adhere to the relevant constitution. These are protests by students, pupils, teachers, university lecturers and other civil society actors, which culminated in the largest mass protest in Belgrade on March 15, 2025 with over 300,000 protesters. The protests were sparked by an accident on the canopy of the Novi Sad train station, which collapsed due to construction defects and claimed 16 lives and injured numerous others. The EU and Serbia’s Western partners, including Austria and Germany, have so far reacted relatively cautiously to the ongoing mass protests, both for geopolitical and economic reasons. The protests have also received little attention in the media, at least until March 2025.

In his lecture, Prof. Dr. Florian Bieber will discuss the causes and origins of the current protests. The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the wars of the 1990s were decisively determined by Slobodan Milošević, whose authoritarian and nationalist rule shaped Serbia. He was only ousted from power in 2000 after numerous mass protests and student movements. The consolidation of democracy in Serbia failed with the gradual takeover of power by Aleksandar Vučić from 2012, who once served as Minister of Information under Milošević. He was able to consolidate his power by formally adhering to EU integration, while at the same time building good relations with Russia and China and tapping into nationalist resentment. With control over the media and all institutions, Vučić was able to weaken the opposition and survive numerous waves of protest.