BELGRADE -- As fireworks lit up the night sky to welcome in the new year, thousands of people in Serbia's capital stood in complete silence, many with their mobile phones raised skyward.
They weren't celebrating -- they were mourning -- and they held their vigil for 15 minutes, one minute for each of the victims of the collapse of a concrete canopy at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad in November. The protesters repeat this every day at 11:52 a.m., the exact time the roof collapsed.
It's the type of dramatic symbolism that has come to define Serbia's largest protests since the fall of late Yugoslav and Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. And after claiming the scalp of the prime minister on January 28 and possibly forcing new elections, the student-led protests show no signs of fizzling out.
With the protesters' average age around 20, this is a generation that has grown up under the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Aleksandar Vucic.
For the students taking to the streets in their tens of thousands, the Novi Sad tragedy is emblematic of everything they believe is wrong in Serbia: widespread institutional corruption, a lack of accountability, and a technocratic class who are perceived to have risen only due to their ties to Vucic's ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
"I don't understand why it isn't obvious that 15 people just shouldn't die from a falling canopy, without any natural disaster," Darija, a student protester, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service. "This should not happen. Those responsible must be found and it must be established why it happened."
The students haven't just grown up with Vucic; they've also grown up with the Internet. Their flair for digital innovation and social media has enabled them to bypass state-controlled media and spread their message far and wide.
The signature of the movement has become the bloody red handprint, which represents the government's alleged culpability in the Novi Sad tragedy. The symbols have appeared on government buildings across Serbia and are painted on signs: "You Have Blood On Your Hands" and "Corruption -- Hands Up."
No Leaders, No Ideology
Serbian opposition parties have tried to join the demonstrations, but the protesters have rejected their advances. Many demonstrators see Serbia's opposition as compromised, little more than stooges for the state.
"Young people are clearly not satisfied with the political space in Serbia," anthropologist Ivan Djordjevic told RFE/RL, "and do not recognize themselves in any of the offered political options."
What the protesters say they want is not political power but accountability and justice within a corrupt system.
The publication of all the documentation related to the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station is their top priority. They are also demanding a 20 percent increase in higher education funding, the dismissal of the charges against student protesters, and the prosecution and removal from public office of those who attacked students and professors.
"I want everyone to have space to express themselves, as long as we stick to basic values such as the rule of law, respect for human and minority rights, solidarity, and empathy," protester Emilija Milenkovic, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, told RFE/RL.
That focus on values means the movement has no leaders and no official ideology. Decisions at rallies and in university faculties are made through "plenums" -- open assemblies where all participants have an equal right to speak and vote on decisions.
This structure, experts say, makes the movement harder to attack as there are no figureheads to criticize or jail. The open organization also makes it more accessible to people of different political stripes.
"At every faculty there are so many opinions, attitudes, political and ideological [views], and I have never seen so many ideological differences at any blockade," protester Milenkovic told RFE/RL.
Broad Reach
But this ideological diversity is also something the movement has grappled with.
At a January protest, some demonstrators held banners showing a map of Kosovo filled with a Serbian flag, with the words: “No Surrender.”
The student movement distanced itself from these elements, releasing a statement saying such displays "are not in line with our values and goals." Other symbols have been seen by some protesters as controversial -- a widely shared video went viral of men taking down an EU flag.
There is, however, an abundance of Serbian flags. "These children perceive Serbia as their home," said Djordjevic. "For them, love for their country is...something much less questionable than for the generations that preceded them, like mine, especially because of the rise of nationalism in the 1990s and what was done in the name of this country."
For young Serbs, staying in their homeland is not easy, despite their love for their country. Youth unemployment is high, and many young people feel there is no other option than to find work abroad.
According to a 2019 UNDP report, "Serbia is among the world's 10 fastest-shrinking populations due to its low birth rates, high out-migration, and low immigration."
"The flag of Serbia is a symbol of our country and also what we are fighting for," said Milenkovic. "It is a message that we do not want to leave this country and, ultimately, that this fight is an act of patriotism."
Serbia has a history of significant student-led movements. In the 1990s, students were at the forefront of protests against Milosevic's authoritarian rule.
One of the biggest student protests in modern Serbian history took place in 1996–1997 over election fraud, which paved the way for Milosevic's eventual overthrow in 2000.
This latest movement has spread rapidly, not just within Belgrade but to the second-and third-largest cities of Novi Sad and Nis, four state universities, and dozens of secondary schools. Striking teachers and farmers have also shown their solidarity with the students.
Anica, a third-year student at Belgrade's Faculty of Philology, said she is glad the students' message is reaching more people.
"While we were walking...I saw a grandmother holding a banner saying, 'Students, Thank You'. That stayed with me. There are so many people with us. These 15 minutes of absolute silence have showed we can do it peacefully and without any incidents," Anica said.
