Tension in Serbia over opposing rallies

Students chose Kragujevac for Saturday’s rally because of its history. In 1835, Serbia was still part of the Ottoman Empire

Serbia’s striking students and supporters of populist President Aleksandar Vucic have planned parallel rallies on Saturday as both mark the country’s Statehood Day with notably contrasting messages.

The student-led protest is the latest in a nationwide anti-graft movement that reflects mounting calls for fundamental political changes in the Balkan state, triggered after a concrete canopy collapsed on a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1, killing 15 people.

The rally, in the central industrial city of Kragujevac, is set to draw tens of thousands of people who, bedsides demanding justice over a fatal accident, have been asking to root out rampant endemic corruption and respect for the rule of law.

Students chose Kragujevac for Saturday’s rally because of its history. In 1835, Serbia was still part of the Ottoman Empire. People in Kragujevac announced a new constitution that sought to limit the powers of the then-rulers. The date is now celebrated as the Statehood Day.

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