Version imprimableDespite the uncertainties surrounding the continuation of the protest movement that has been shaking Serbia for seven months now, after the huge demonstration in Vidovdan on Saturday, which brought together almost 140,000 people in the streets of Belgrade, the students have once again pulled off a brilliant coup. On Saturday evening, they gave their ‘green light’ to nationwide civil disobedience. And the public were quick to respond.
At the call of the students, hundreds of people gathered on Sunday evening in front of the Belgrade Palace of Justice to demand the release of the students arrested during the violent clashes of the previous day. Thousands more quickly converged on key points in the capital: the Gazela bridge, the Branko bridge, Zeleni Venac, the Autokomanda motorway interchange, etc.
That same evening, the protests spread well beyond the capital. Roads, bridges and junctions were blocked in Novi Sad, Užice, Čačak, Kragujevac, Zrenjanin and many other towns. Elsewhere, major communication routes were cut off. The Belgrade-Bar railway line was blocked at Lazarevac on Monday evening. Around a hundred residents of Raška blocked the Ibar motorway towards Kosovska Mitrovica and Novi Pazar, where citizens also blocked the main road to Montenegro. The CRTA organisation has counted nearly 100 blockades throughout Serbia in the last 24 hours.
A green light is neither a call to violence nor a signal for war or revenge. It marks a starting point - not a physical one, but a social, political and moral one.
The demonstrators keep reminding us that these are ‘non-violent actions’. While some university plenums seemed divided on the radicalization of the movement in the run-up to 28 June, the students clarified their position in a statement on the scope of the ‘green light’. "A green light is neither a call for violence nor a signal of war or revenge. It marks a starting point - not a physical one, but a social, political and moral one. It means that passivity is no longer tolerable. Despite fear and repression, we must act. This green light is also a demarcation: the red lights, the violence, are on the side of those who seek to suppress dialogue and resistance. Green is on the side of life, change and the future. This green light that we have lit is not an order, but an invitation. An invitation to refuse injustice as if it didn’t exist.
This ‘green light’ embodies a clear line: that of civil resistance, non-violent, joyful and determined. And everywhere in Belgrade, a wind of freedom and hope blew over the city. In the streets of the capital, residents improvised barricades with skips, tyres and sacks of bricks, in what they called ‘controlled, decentralized chaos’. In the middle of the day, despite the sweltering 35-degree heat, the atmosphere remained cheerful and family-friendly.
‘Who wants ice creams?’ shouted a man in the middle of the crowd, several cones in hand, as passers-by crossed the same pedestrian crossing in a loop. Crossing the street for several hours in a group, with children or pets, is well on the way to becoming a summer trend in Belgrade. The humour is there, but so is the mistrust: perhaps this is the ‘Serbianinat’ in practice. On Monday evening, from Vukov spomenik to Slavija, students played volleyball in the middle of the Boulevard, which was closed to traffic, while passers-by walked their dogs between the rubbish bins to the sound of whistles.
Police without badges
The police seem to be waiting until nightfall for their heavy-handed interventions. At around 3am on Monday morning, special units proceeded to dismantle the barricades, in many cases using force against peaceful demonstrators. Videos widely circulated on social networks showed vehicles speeding down an avenue in the city centre towards groups of demonstrators. Immediately afterwards, special units arrived in cars and violently arrested several students.
The appearance of hooded and unidentified officers also provoked a wave of indignation, even though the law requires all uniformed officers to wear a visible badge showing their identification number, rank and name. These ‘policemen’, some of whom were trying to hide tattoos and hastily-fitted equipment, betrayed a cobbled-together appearance and are more reminiscent of ‘Ćaciland’ guards. The police have so far justified the lack of identification by the fact that they were wearing protective equipment as part of the dispersal operations. However, on the morning of Monday 30 June, the officers were not wearing helmets or riot gear, but ordinary uniforms, without the slightest insignia. This raises a crucial question: do the gendarmerie, the special units and the police still have the capacity to deal with mass blockades simultaneously in several towns?
For its part, the Belgrade Human Rights Centre announced that it had lodged several complaints over the last two days against police officers who had acted illegally and used excessive force.
The mice are ahead of the cat
The students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts have called a general strike from Tuesday 1 July, assuring that the trade unions in solidarity with the people will join their movement. The demands are clear: the immediate release of detainees, the dismantling of ‘Ćaciland’, and above all the calling of early elections. A giant banner carried by students at the demonstration in Vidovdan read ‘Tick tock, tick tock’. Even if victory is not yet assured, the last few days have shown that, after seven months, the protest movement is now mature, horizontal and organized, and above all that citizens and students are moving forward together, driven by common objectives, shared values and deep-rooted solidarity.
Faced with this mobilization, the authorities seem to have run out of answers. Sunday evening’s events probably marked a point of no return, and it would seem that the mice have already beaten the cat.
1 July 2025
Translated by International Viewpoint from Courrier des Balkans.
