Station tragedy endangers strict European presidents

Station tragedy endangers strict European presidents

On November 1, Aleksandar Matkovic was too late for his train. He traveled from Novi Sad, in northern Serbia, to the capital Belgrade, where he works as an economic historian. When he reached the train station, he witnessed a terrible event that the country still shakes.

collapse of the station facility

minutes before Matkovic arrived, the roof of the station - whose renovation had been completed a few months ago - had collapsed and had buried passengers on the platform. Fifteen people lost their lives.

"I stood there for about two or three hours and just stared at the place where the roof had been. It was so unrealistic," said Matkovic in an interview with CNN.

from shock to protest

The initial shock quickly turned into anger. The destroyed roof has become a strong symbol for what many Serbs consider to be corruption in the heart of the state, which President Aleksandar Vucic and his government have been doing for 12 years. What started with memorial events for the deceased developed into almost daily protests that mobilize ever larger parts of the Serbian society and reach every corner of the Balkan region. "We are in unknown terrain," said Matkovic.

The demonstrations conducted by students call for the complete disclosure of the documents to the renovation work and have become so great and constantly that some question whether they could actually bring Vucic's rule. "There are many questions through the head for people," added Matkovic.

vucics authoritarian rule

Vucic dominated Serbia since taking office as Prime Minister in 2014 and later as President three years later. As the former Minister of Information of the Brutal Yugoslav regime of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian democracy has been increasingly devalued under Vucics Serbian progress party (SNS). Freedom House, which measures the strength of democracies, found in 2019 that Serbia was downgraded from "free" to "party -free", among other things due to attacks on the media and the concentration of power in the hands of the president.

strategic ambiguity and international interests

Nevertheless, his critics praise him as a clever knectopher. In an increasingly multipolar world, countries such as Serbia - a regional power that the West wants to separate from its historical ally of Russia - enjoy numerous options for action. For Moscow, Serbia can brake the western urge to other Balkan countries. For Europe, a large, planned lithium mine could make Serbia important for ecological change. For China, Serbia offers the opportunity to expand its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative.

themselves some in the United States have interests in the country. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, is reportedly working on a project to build a Trump Hotel in Belgrade, supported by capital from various golf states.

domestic political unrest and the point of the turn

Although Serbia's transactional approach does not reflect a coherent ideology - the country sells weapons to Ukraine, but refuses to impose sanctions against Russia - it was profitable. Serbia was supplied with Russian gas, Chinese infrastructure, European investments and even dazzling American construction projects.

This "strategic ambiguity", says Stradner, is at the expense of internal dissatisfaction.

"People have enough," says Engjellushe Morina, Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The students are tired of hearing this rhetoric ... where Vucic says one for the domestic market and the other for the international market."

The anger over the government has been bubbling for years. In May 2023, when Serbia was shaken by two mass shootings, people protested against the "culture of violence" in the country. There were further demonstrations after a controversial election later a year in which the opposition called for a repetition. These protests also lasted weeks, but ultimately flattened again.

This time it is different, claim demonstrators and analysts. The latent dissatisfaction with the government found its expression in the tragedy at Novi Sad station. The station building was hastily reopened in 2022 - in the presence of Vucic and Orban - in the run -up to a choice that took place this year before it was again closed for work by a Chinese company and its subcontractor. Matkovic said the Serbs had the feeling that the project "accelerated" and "had been promoted by the political elites". It was reopened in July 2024, just four months before the new roof built there.

demonstrations and the loss of fear

While previous Vucic scandals could not be attributed, he did it. The perception of alleged corruption is "the one that unites all people," said Stradner.

Serbian prosecutors have charged 13 people about their role in the disaster, including the former Minister for Building, Transport and Infrastructure. However, the demonstrators demand that even more to be done in order to account for both politically and criminal law.

Analysts say that Vucic specialized in thwarting protests by making targeted concessions, causing allies, the opposition surprises or smiled at the movement. He regularly describes demonstrators as "foreign agents" who try to bring about a "color revolution" as in other former Soviet states.

But these demonstrations represent a new challenge. Since they started as mourning marches, they were largely free of "political" symbols such as EU flags that Vucic previously used to discredit demonstrations.

The protests also attract broad layers of Serbian society. In scenes that are reminiscent of the end of Milosevics regime, farmers join the demonstrations in Belgrade with their tractors.

Even judges have joined the protest - a surprise, given the majority of the judiciary, explained Edward P. Joseph, lecturer at John's Hopkins University, who worked for twelve and a half years in the Balkans, among others for NATO. "Usually they would never dare to show themselves so publicly, but now they show themselves in silent support for the protests," Joseph reported in an interview with CNN. "The fear factor has disappeared."

It is unclear how Vucic can regain this power, said Joseph. Since Vucic has to play "this spectacle" of responsibility, a violent approach would be "his own grave inscription". The opposite approach - an extensive democratic reform - is also a challenge, says Morina. Although Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned this week, and said that he was doing this "so as not to further increase the tensions in society", this has brought the protesting little satisfaction.

"How convincing is it (Vucic) will be able to transform this whole movement that he has built up-the SNS (Serbian progress party), the partisans, the radicals, the football hooligans-into a democratic movement?" Asked Morina.

It remains unclear what the patient situation could break. The protest movement has distanced itself from opposition politicians, which means that there is no obvious alternative that is waiting for their chance. But this could also be a strength, said Stradner. "It is time to end the person cult that Serbia has had for decades. It is time to believe more about laws, the judiciary, in control and counter -control than in a certain personality type," she added.