Student Movement Shakes Serbian Government

Weeks of student-led protests in Serbia have escalated into violent clashes, posing the greatest challenge in a decade to President Aleksandar Vucic’s grip on power.

BELGRADE — Serbia is facing its most volatile political crisis in years, as weeks of student-led protests against President Aleksandar Vucic’s government have escalated into violent clashes in Belgrade and other cities¹. The unrest, which began last November after the deadly collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, killing 15 people, has swelled into a broad-based challenge to Vucic’s decade-long hold on power, drawing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators into the streets.

On Wednesday night, riot police fired tear gas at crowds in the capital while masked men wielding batons attacked anti-government activists near the ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s offices². In Novi Sad, witnesses reported gunshots fired into the air as rival groups clashed. Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured, and video circulated online showing loyalist groups hurling flares, bottles and stones at demonstrators³.

Protest organisers accused Vucic of deliberately provoking violence to …