Serbian Holiday Reflects Divide

Serbia's striking students and supporters of populist President Aleksandar Vucic held parallel rallies Saturday as both marked a major holiday in the country 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, the AP reports, triggered after a concrete canopy on a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, killing 15 people. The rally in the central industrial city of Kragujevac drew tens of thousands of people who, besides demanding justice over the tragedy, have been demanding that officials root out rampant endemic corruption and respect for the rule of law.

Vucic opponents

• The place: Students chose Kragujevac for Saturday's rally for its history. In 1835, Serbia was still part of the Ottoman Empire, and people in Kragujevac announced a new constitution that sought to limit the powers of the then rulers. The date is now celebrated as Statehood Day, a national holiday. Protesters from all over the country streamed into Kragujevac on Saturday. Along the way, people greeted them with food and refreshments and offers of accommodation, many crying and expressing hope for change. As the students arrived in Kragujevac, residents cheered.
• The message: "I am here to support this student rebellion, which has grown into a civil rebellion, and to fight for the rule of law and justice in this society, so that Serbia becomes a country where life is dignified," said a woman from Belgrade. At 11:52am, the assembly observed 15 minutes of silence to mark the moment the canopy collapsed, per DW.

Vucic supporters

• The place: Government authorities bused thousands of supporters to the pro-Vucic rally from throughout the country, as well as neighboring Bosnia, to Sremska Mitrovica, a small town northwest of Belgrade.
• The president's message: Vucic stuck to a traditional nationalist theme, warning that the West wants to unseat him by force and that this could lead to the breakup of the country. Before the rally, he said that the student protests "will go down in the history of dishonor." He later told supporters that more than $3 billion has been invested from abroad to topple him from power, but that the student "revolution" has failed. He didn't offer any proof for those claims. "They have already lost, they don't see how the political wheel has already turned," Vucic said, referring to the return to the White House of President Trump, whom the Serbian leader supports. "Unless they kill me." Vucic said he'll write a book on how he destroyed the student uprising that will be published abroad, including China.

(More Serbia stories.)