N°63 – A year of protests makes you braver

Novi Sad, 2nd December 2025,

I grew up in a very rebellious family. We never keep our mouths shut. We have always been combative. So one year ago, when the concrete canopy at Novi Sad station collapsed, after first being afraid that my sister or my friends were there, I was like, “Okay, that’s enough”.

We had kept quiet for so long about so many things in Serbia, and we knew this event was just the tip of the iceberg. That’s why the movement started.

At first we were all scared because we didn’t know what could happen. We already knew that the government was capable of randomly arresting people, so it took a lot of courage.

For the past year, I’ve spent most of my time at my university, sleeping there and eating there. I would even hang out with my family there. A lot of my friendships have changed. I don’t hang out with certain people as much as I used to before because either they don’t agree with all of this, or they don’t have the energy to put into it, so we have kind of gone our separate ways. It also came down to fear: you’re always looking over your shoulder to see if somebody’s following you, to see if you’re on somebody’s list.

I have a lot of bad memories that I don’t like thinking about, like police beatings and stuff. But the core memory for me is when we walked from the city of Bor to the city of Niš. I didn’t know that I was able to walk for 130 kilometers with a sprained ankle! We walked through small villages and all the residents would come out to say hi to us, to give us apples and food, and to hug us. It was amazing to see all of that!

The protests are still a big thing in our country. They have taken over the whole of Serbian society. On the TV, on trains, in buses, everywhere people talk about protests.

People have realized that they’re not alone. And they realize that young people aren’t going to stay silent. We’re not just scrolling on social media. We’re actually actively participating in something. A lot of older people have come to realize that the government is not working for them because their grandchildren are involved in the movement.

Young people in other countries who are also involved in protests and have their own movements are trying to figure out how we managed to stir the whole country. The other day I was talking about it with an Italian friend of mine and he was like, “okay, tell me how to do it”!

Of course, over the past twelve months, we’ve had periods of being demotivated, of wondering why we’re still doing this… but then you remember that you’re not only doing this for yourself, you’re doing it for your friends, for your future family, so they can actually live in a normal Serbia. So the motivation is still there, but we are more tired than before. A lot of people joined at the beginning but some of them have given up, they didn’t have the energy to continue. But still, when things need to be done, they show up. You can just call them and they will help.

After one year, the goal of the protests is still the same: to have a normal country without corruption. But the methods of fighting have changed. Now we’re asking for parliamentary elections.

We don’t sleep at the universities anymore because we kind of realized that if we’re going block our own education it’s going to become a big problem. And I think a lot of things will change, because we’re still trying to figure out a way to both go to lessons and protest.

After one year, I think we’re braver. We will keep on fighting because we’re aware that if we don’t do this now, if we give up, we’re just going to disappear. We’re either going to prison or we’re moving out of the country. There is no third option.

Dana