Schools across Serbia will close for the winter holidays a week earlier than planned this year as the government of the nationalist president, Aleksandar Vučić, seeks to stop anti-corruption protests that have gripped universities from spreading to the secondary education sector.
The education minister, Slavica Đukić Dejanović, announced on Friday that primary and secondary schools across the country would close from Tuesday, rather than Monday 30 December, citing concerns over the safety and quality of children’s education amid the “stop, Serbia” protests.
The majority of Serbia’s population are members of the Orthodox church, which follows the Julian calendar, and Christmas is officially celebrated on 7 January rather than on 24 or 25 December.
Earlier on Friday, teachers from four education unions announced they would go on strike in solidarity with students who had taken to the streets after a deadly canopy collapse last month.
A rally at Belgrade’s Slavija Square on Sunday afternoon drew tens of thousands of protesters, involving not just students and academic staff but also agricultural workers and prominent film and theatre actors.
On 1 November, 14 people aged between six and 74 were killed when the concrete canopy of the main railway station in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, collapsed on to a busy pavement, just months before the completion of a major renovation of the station. A 15th person later died in hospital.
The government was quick to claim that the canopy had not been part of the renovation, but photos that emerged after the accident appeared to show tonnes of glass and iron had been added to the canopy as part of the project. The apparent lack of structural engineers involved in the renovation, overseen by Infrastructure Railways of Serbia and the Chinese consortium CRIC-CCCC, raised further questions.
At demonstrations in Novi Sad and Belgrade, protesters called on the government to take responsibility, alleging that the accident was a result of a system that rewarded loyalty to Vučić’s Serbian Progressive party over competence.
“If you do something wrong, you should be punished for it,” Vanja Šević, a 22-year-old student at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, told the Guardian. “Yet no one has been properly held accountable. We want the blockades to continue until justice has been served.”
On Fridays throughout November and December, students across Serbia have organised 15-minute faculty blockades at 11.52 am, in reference to the number of victims and the time of the canopy collapse. A red handprint became the protest movement’s unofficial symbol, painted on banners and on the Varadin Bridge in Novi Sad.
Heavy-handed policing triggered further anger among the student protesters. On 22 November, some students and teaching staff at a road blockade outside the Faculty of Dramatic Arts were verbally and physically assaulted by people who appeared to be angry drivers, some of whom have since been identified as holding official functions for municipal authorities.
Ilija Kostić, 74, required surgical treatment and the amputation of one of his testicles after allegedly being beaten up at a police station after a blockade of Novi Sad’s court and prosecutor’s office. Full transparency and accountability over these incidents has been subsumed into the protesters’ demands.
Vučić’s government has claimed the growing protests are funded by foreign powers while also trying to appease the protesters. The government has announced the release of documents pertaining to the Novi Sad renovation and offered a scheme for affordable housing loans for young people.
Yet the student protest movement has been surprisingly broad, with even the University of Belgrade’s Orthodox theology faculty temporarily joining in the road blockades. Over the last week, high school students in several Serbian cities have joined in the 11.52 protests, some with the support of their teachers, to demand the dismissal of Dejanović.
The president of the Education Union of Serbia, Valentina Ilić, questioned whether the early school closures would have the effect desired by the government. “Maybe they will be removed from the schools but they have created an even bigger problem, because the children will remain on the streets,” she told the Serbian broadcaster N1.
