
Students in Serbia have over the past 12 months mobilized much of the country in opposition to the corrupt authoritarian government in place there since 2013. The movement is unusual in several ways. First, it has no obvious leaders but is instead guided by plenums on the various university faculties throughout the country, coordinated by social media. Second, instead of staging a few large demonstrations in big cities, students have walked throughout the entire country, spreading their message to villages and small towns as well as cities – and they are everywhere greeted as heroes. Third, the focus of demonstrations is not loud protests but instead 16 minutes of silence in honor of the 16 people killed in a tragedy in Novi Sad on 1 Nov. 2024, which had been the result of the corruption that underlies the government. Finally, they have included communities long marginalized, especially the Bosniaks of Sandžak/ Novi Pazar. By November 2025 the government has been reduced to relying on brute force and their near-total control over mass media; but the students keep mobilizing via social media and direct actions. This talk will be an overview of the movement over the past year.

