Growing protests pose the most serious challenge yet to Serbia’s populist president

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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is escalating his crackdown on protests that have shaken his populist rule in recent months. What began as a small, student-led campaign against corruption has snowballed into one of the most turbulent protest waves in the Balkan country in a quarter of a century.

Rights groups and Vucic’s political opponents have warned of increasingly brutal tactics aimed at silencing a movement that has become the biggest challenge yet to his decade-long grip on power.

Last week, tanks rolled through the capital, Belgrade, in preparation for a military parade on Sept. 20. If the parade becomes a flashpoint for unrest, protesters fear the military could remain on the streets.

Vucic has ruled Serbia for more than a decade, reshaping its politics while drawing accusations of corruption and authoritarianism.

He began his political career in the 1990s as a hardline nationalist in the Serbian Radical Party, becoming information minister under the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. He was notorious for his calls to punish independent media and his wartime rhetoric against Serbia’s neighbors which he maintains to this day.

Serbia was defeated in the wars in the Balkans, Milosevic was ousted by a wave of protests in October 2000, and Vucic reinvented himself as a pro-European reformer. He co-founded the Serbian Progressive Party, which promised modernization and EU integration, but he consolidated his power through populism, control of the media, and a tight grip on state institutions.

On Nov. 1, 2024, a canopy collapsed at the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing at least 16 people. The tragedy, tied to a Chinese-backed renovation project, sparked outrage over alleged state-run corruption and negligence.

University students were the first to protest, blocking traffic every Friday for 15 minutes in memory of the dead.

But the anger over corruption quickly resonated beyond campuses, drawing crowds of ordinary citizens frustrated with rising costs of living and a sense of impunity among ruling-party elites.

Protesters now demand accountability, transparency, and early elections.

At first, the demonstrations were peaceful marches and sit-ins. But tensions rose when authorities deployed riot police, plainclothes officers and even shady parapolice units, led by soccer hooligans loyal to Vucic, to disperse the gatherings with batons, sticks and flares.

Protesters reported beatings, arbitrary arrests, and the use of tear gas, stun grenades and sonic devices — tactics that rights groups have condemned as brutal and excessive.

The harsh response from the authorities has fueled defiance. Students have escalated their actions by blocking major intersections, occupying university halls, and staging sit-ins outside state institutions. Each new crackdown has drawn more people into the streets, creating a cycle of confrontation.

And while previous waves of protests petered out over a disputed property development, allegations of stolen elections and two mass shootings, this time the protests have built up over time. Crucially, they spread beyond Belgrade to dozens of cities and small towns across the country.

Vucic has repeatedly branded the student protesters as “terrorists” who are working in conjunction with Western powers to remove him from office, without presenting any evidence. Although he has called for a dialogue with the students, he has refused to call early elections and warned of an even harsher response to the protests.

Students flatly rejected the offer of talks before early elections. In response to the student demands, authorities sacked more than 100 teachers, professors and deans and replaced them with Vucic’s loyalists.

While some schools have reopened with new staff, others have remained closed, especially some of the university faculties.

While under intense domestic pressure, Vucic continued projecting Serbia’s foreign diplomacy as balanced, managing complex relations with both the European Union and his authoritarian allies, most notably Russia.

He attended a summit on Sept.1 with leaders from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, where he said he received their support in dealing with the protests at home. He has also refused to join international sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

However, he has also made no move to block Serbian exports of weapons to Ukraine and earlier this year, he made his first-ever visit to Kyiv, signaling a willingness to engage with Western-aligned nations.

Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but negotiations have made slow progress.

Vucic’s tenure is marked by a centralization of power, suppression of dissent, and tight control over the media, drawing scrutiny from human rights organizations.

He has openly advocated the closure of the last remaining independent TV outlets, N1 and Nova, or a purge of reporters and management. He has called them liars for their coverage of the protests, although they mainly broadcast live, with minimal intervention from editors or commentators.

Analysts and opposition groups argue that Europe must increase the pressure on Serbia to prevent its further democratic erosion.

EU officials have warned Vucic that progress toward EU membership depends on meeting certain standards, including reforms in the judiciary, media freedoms and fight against corruption.

At a time when Europe is dealing with the repercussions of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the EU has so far shown little willingness to confront Vucic and his government.

The Serbian opposition and some EU lawmakers believe the EU’s reaction has been too timid because officials believe Vucic is the only one who can preserve peace in a region still reeling from a series of wars in the 1990s that left over 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

The anti-graft rallies have become more than just a fight against corruption. They are now a direct challenge to Vucic’s heavy-handed rule, with demonstrators demanding free elections, independent judiciary and accountability for police violence.

With neither side showing signs of backing down, Serbia faces a deepening political crisis and the risk of further unrest and even bloodshed.

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Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this report.