Riot police clashed with anti-government student-led demonstrators who rallied in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Saturday to demand early parliamentary elections after nearly eight months of protests.
The students have been a key force in driving anti-corruption protests across the nation following the deadly collapse of a newly renovated train station canopy in the city of Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people.
Many Serbians blamed the collapse on alleged government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.
Several protesters were handcuffed by police, and an officer was seen injured on the ground during the ongoing street battles. It was unclear whether others were injured.
As the protest formally ended, the demonstrators threw eggs, plastic bottles and other objects at riot police who were preventing the crowd from approaching a downtown park.
Serbian police said 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest Saturday.
An independent monitoring group that records public gatherings said around 140,000 people attended the student-led rally.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) have rejected calls for early elections, accusing protesters of seeking to incite unrest under foreign influence without providing evidence.
Despite the government's demands for the protests to end, the large turnout at Saturday’s rally suggested that public anger persisted.
Hours before the student-led rally, the ruling SNS party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.”
They were joining a camp of pro-government protesters in central Belgrade, where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.
Presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia are scheduled for 2027.
Although Vučić and the SNS-led government have repeatedly stated that they want Serbia to join the European Union, Belgrade still maintains good relations with Russia and China.
