SERBIA: ‘We Haven’t Inherited Democracy, so We’ve Had to Reinvent it Ourselves’

CIVICUS speaks with Mihajlo Matković, a student activist and member of the CIVICUS Youth Action Team, about anti-corruption protests that have swept Serbia over the past year.

Since November 2024, Serbia has witnessed one of its largest protest movements in decades following a deadly railway station canopy collapse that unleashed anger at systemic corruption. The student-led campaign expanded nationwide, with over 300,000 people mobilising to demand accountability and democratic reform in March 2025. Despite mass arrests, intimidation and police violence, the movement continues.

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