In April of last year, dozens of students set off from Serbia on bicycles, determined to reach Strasbourg, France. The goal of the grueling 13-day journey across the continent was simple: to make their voices heard in Europe and beyond.
In their home city of Novi Sad, students had been holding almost daily protests after a deadly roof collapse at the city’s main railway station. As their demand for accountability and justice spread across the country, they were met with police wielding batons, tear gas, and a political class that labeled these young people as traitors.
Their trip to Strasbourg was meant to highlight the growing erosion of democratic values in their home country. “Serbia needs Europe’s support,” the students explained in an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron when they arrived in Strasbourg and met with MEPs and officials. “We are not riding toward Europe to flee Serbia. We are riding to bring it back.”
On Sunday, their movement made headlines around the world as the students went from the streets of Serbia to the halls of power. In a vote with the highest turnout since Yugoslavia broke apart in 1992, over 50% of voters backed the students to oust the increasingly authoritarian leader Aleksandar Vučić and end his party’s 14 years in power.
It was, as a Guardian editorial noted, “one of the most remarkable election outcomes in recent European history.”
The students’ extraordinary achievement came as Europe has been shaken by weeks of protests. From Porto to Paris and Madrid to Milan, analysts have pointed to a common thread running through the diverse protests: a belief that the social contract has broken down, leaving younger generations facing a future in which they will be worse off than their parents.
The election result in Serbia reveals the power of these protests to reshape politics, postdoctoral researcher Aleksandar Matković noted this week. Could it be, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange once told an interviewer in Belgrade, that Serbia is “a country where the future happens first”?
Matković drew on his involvement in the student movement to offer a unique window into everything that went into their win, citing discussions that lasted as long as six hours as the students laid the groundwork for entering politics. “The world should be watching closely: it may be witnessing the start of a very different kind of politics,” he wrote.
Their win sparked joy across Serbia, sending tens of thousands of jubilant revelers onto streets across the country. “It’s very strange that on the very streets where the police beat us, on the streets where we retreated countless times in the face of the gendarmerie, we are now standing here as the victors,” Sara, 24, told the Guardian.
Hours later, supporters of the movement appeared again, this time to clean up after a night of raucous celebrations.
What happens now?
When the celebrations are over, the question of government begins. Photograph: Aleksandar Jovicic/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The movement now faces a tremendous task – particularly given that it has no hierarchy or leader. For more than a decade, Vučić’s party had transformed the state, tightening its grip on the media, filling institutions with party loyalists, and using ministries and Serbian institutions as political tools.
The movement won 140 of the 250 seats in parliament, giving a comfortable majority to a slate of candidates ranging from academics to athletes, who were chosen through student assemblies in the run-up to the election. As one candidate told my colleagues on Monday, the top priority was “the social and psychological detoxification” of the country.
Underpinning the movement is an 11-point plan, which includes ridding the country of corruption, reforming the judiciary and media, and improving access to healthcare. “We are neither promising nor expecting overnight miracles from this victory,” one member of the movement wrote in the Guardian this week. “Rather, we hope for something fundamentally radical for Serbia: normal, functioning institutions.” And while their plans for power take shape, the impact of their bold experiment will certainly be felt far beyond Serbia. The country applied to join the European Union in 2009, but the process has largely stalled in recent years. Now, much like in neighbouring Hungary, the elections have opened the possibility of a fresh start, along with hope for a democratic resurgence in central Europe. As EU officials sent their congratulations this week to the students, whose policy platform promises to put the question of future EU membership to a referendum, their messages carried a note of optimism. “We stand ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and strong democratic institutions, and to work together to advance Serbia’s future in the European Union,” the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said on social media. Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, was more direct. “A new chapter can begin for Serbia. The door to the EU is open, and we are ready to move forward together,” she wrote on social media. It was a stunning reversal of fortunes for the students, who last year felt they had to cycle more than 1,300km (780 miles) to make their voices heard. Now – after nearly two years of protests met with detentions on trumped-up evidence, illegal surveillance, threats and job losses – it seems they might have a chance to fulfil their wish of bringing Europe to Serbia. To receive the complete version of This Is Europe in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Heres a set of FAQs about the grassroots democratic movement in Serbia
1 Whats happening in Serbia right now
Serbia has seen months of large protests and local gatherings often sparked by a tragic event and fueled by public anger over corruption and government accountability Out of these protests citizens are building new more direct forms of democratic participationand the rest of Europe is paying attention
2 What does a new kind of democracy mean here
It refers to citizens taking a more active handson role in decisionmakingthrough local assemblies neighborhood groups direct action and mutual aidrather than relying only on elections and traditional institutions
3 Is this a formal political party or movement
Mostly no Its largely decentralized and grassroots made up of informal citizen groups student organizations local initiatives and ordinary people rather than a single party with a leader
4 What triggered these protests
The immediate trigger was public outrage over a deadly infrastructure collapse which many saw as a symptom of corruption and negligence That anger grew into broader demands for accountability and systemic change
5 What are the main demands
Common demands include government accountability transparency punishment for corruption and more say for citizens in decisions that affect them
6 What forms does this new democracy take in practice
Examples include neighborhood and village assemblies plenums studentled organizing mutual aid networks and direct support for striking workers and local communities
7 What is a plenum
A plenum is an open horizontal meeting where anyone can participate speak and vote on decisionsno formal hierarchy Its a way for citizens to deliberate and decide together directly
8 How is this different from regular representative democracy
In representative democracy citizens vote for officials who decide for them This model emphasizes direct participation people debate and decide issues themselves especially at the local level
9 Why is Europe watching
Serbia is a candidate for EU membership and the movement touches on issues Europe cares aboutrule of law corruption and democratic health Its also seen as a test case for new forms of citizen politics across the continent
10 What are the benefits of this approach
It gives citizens a real voice between elections builds community trust and solidarity increases transparency and can respond quickly to local problems It
