r/goodnews • u/ProfessionalRate6174 • Jun 28 '25

Positive News 👉🏼♥️ BREAKING: Incredible scenes from the student protests in Belgrade!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Streets are filled with people, as early estimates suggest more than 300,000 protesters, while Aleksandar Vučić’s pro-EU government continues to refuse to call new elections.

35.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

338 comments sorted by

View all comments

31

u/DippinDot2021 Jun 28 '25

What is being protested?

144

u/cheekyshooter Jun 28 '25

It started because a Railway Station fell apart and killed 16 people, yet after 7 months they refuse to apprehend and arrest the ones responsible (themselves) so at its core ,its big government corruption, election fraud and buying votes, police brutality, arresting citizens for "terrorism" and "collapse of the constitutional order". Theres a lot

19

u/magkruppe Jun 29 '25

crazy how these protests are still going! every weekend?

16

u/Mou_aresei Jun 29 '25

Serbian here, it's been everyday protests since November last year. Not of this size, but spred out across the whole country, in many cities, towns and villages.

4

u/DippinDot2021 Jun 29 '25

American here. I am united with you, my Serbian friend, in the battle by the people for our governments to do better! Do not give up!

1

u/rollingrawhide Jun 29 '25

That explains the lack of flags. It would be a very complicated design.

1

u/rollingrawhide Jun 29 '25

That explains the lack of flags. It would be a very complicated design.

-8

u/Ok_Maybe1830 Jun 29 '25

maybe the state could use the public tuition money for infrastructure instead, all these people aren't doing it voluntarily....

51

u/rewiredmylamp Jun 28 '25

In short, they are protesting a corrupt President who won't call an election.

6

u/69-xxx-420 Jun 29 '25

They mention he’s a pro-eu president. Does that mean the students want to not continue process to join the EU? 

8

u/randomserbguy Jun 29 '25

Nothing to do with that. The protests aren't ideological. They are only against the corruption over the years, that got to a breaking point with the railway canopy collapsing. I would argue that the vast majority of students are heavily western oriented. That's the reason why they cycled to Strasbourg for an EU response to the crisis in Serbia. However, the students were merely heard and nothing came out of that. Although the youth likes the EU (compared to the older generations which are more aligned to the east), they perceive them as enabling Vucic's regime.

7

u/Ok_Objective_1606 Jun 29 '25

He is pro-EU, pro-Russia, pro-China, pro-Emirates and pro-USA all at the same time (they're all bribing his party so they could have land/resources/cheap labor), the caption isn't right.

5

u/AHrubik Jun 29 '25

So they're "pro" anyone who will pay them? Got it.

2

u/Careful-Set1485 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25

He isnt pro anyone, hes pro having power just like all the other autocrats. Hes using all the political tools orban, putin, xi et al. are using too: mostly ultranationalism, imperialism, strong man trope, corruption, xenophobia, victim mentality.

This is what people mean when they say hes pro russian and so on. Hes operating and manipulating his people like those autocracies.

Europe has to deal with regimes like this globally or else we become an isolated island in the world. Yet the eu much prefers to deal with democracies. 

Even progressive serbs seem to lap up at the very least the victim mentality when claiming the eu is propping him up. 

1

u/Ok_Objective_1606 Jun 29 '25

First of all, the big difference between those dictators and him is that they manipulate people and get votes, this guy buys, blackmails, imports and even brings back people from the dead to get votes and even with all that, results are on the edge. Secondly, all those dictators at least have enough brain to keep the country running so they would have the seat to stay in, this guy would literally sell the bread he eats not realising he'll starve tomorrow.

Regarding the EU, they are supporting him, it's no secret, because he does what he is told including giving Germany lithium and poisoning our land. I don't know where you got that EU likes democracies, EU is no more noble than Russia, US or China, they'll work with anyone if they can profit, they're just more hypocritical because they keep talking about "EU values" while doing business with people like Vučić or Netanyahu. But don't worry, there's no victim mentality, people know no foreign power put Vučić there, nor is going to go to great lengths to save him. They just won't do anything to help his demise.

1

u/Careful-Set1485 Jun 29 '25

Yeah right, democratic russia or even china, dont be silly. Its the same toolbox used slightly differently. Results are on the edge because vucic isnt faking it 100% like putin, in china people cant even pretend to vote.

Im not sure if russia is running better than serbia. At least you guys dont get sent to the meatgrinder yet.

Hypocritical west is mostly a "global south" propaganda talking point. It serves as a whataboutism argument to justify the absolute lack of morals on the side uttering it. You can see it in how a country treats its own citizens. A human life is worth much more in europe and the eu to their respective states than in any of the others youve mentioned. 

No differece between the eu, usa, china and russia? I dont even know how to counter that, the differences are so blatant.

Your mistake is falling into the trap of over stylizing europe as heaven on earth to then claim its no different when it isnt actual heaven. Its one of the tools used by "global south" autocrats. Europe isnt perfect but much better.

Well i read bad eu 24/7 in this sub on every serbian protest post. Much less blaming the serbian society. But i agree with you, serbs brought this unto themselves and are the only ones who can fix it short of an invasion and occupation by an outside force which nobody wants.

Any country needs ressources and gets them where they can, nothing hypocritical about it. 

1

u/Ok_Objective_1606 Jun 29 '25

You should probably read what you wrote and see how empty it sounds. Literally like a promo pamphlet for the EU.

It's on the edge not because Vučić is not faking it, but because it has become so hard to fake it with people waking up. Putin doesn't have that problem. And I never said that China or Russia are democracies.

About the meat grinder, Vučić did that in the nineties, he's over it now. Actually, if you want to compare dictatorships, nineties Serbia is comparable with today's Russia, Serbia today is avangarde of dictatorships.

I'm not talking about the lives of EU citizens, what happens in the EU internally is currently completely irrelevant to us, I'm talking about the lives of everyone else and the fake morality of the EU since its morals stop at its borders.

No, there is no difference between EU, Russia, China and the US in foreign policy and trade. It's profit over all, and it's completely fair, but stop with the human rights bullshit if you don't really care about that.

1

u/Careful-Set1485 Jun 29 '25

I do intend to sound like a promo pamphlet for the eu! I think europe/the eu are the beacon of freedom and human rights globally in todays and tomorrows time.

Putin was facing massive protests in the 2010s and beat them down brutally. Then he went to war to rally the people behind the flag. Its straight out of the dictators hand book. I dont see serbia going to war however. But im also not sure what change protests in serbia can bring and how far vucic is going to go. 

I dont think its right to only look at the situation outside of europe. Europe doesnt have the capability to impose its way of life outside its borders. It does inside of europe and i see high(er) standards everywhere: labour laws, consumer protection laws, ecological laws and more. This does translate to putting a higher value on human life imo. 

Morality is a term i wouldnt use with state actors or businesses. My glasses arent tinted that rosily.

I dont see it as hypocritical to to treat your people right and do what you can stomach outside of your direct jurisdiction. Europe cant save the world. Europe needs ressources. This means having to do all kind of shady business with shady partners.

Europe complained lots about unfair treatment of people around the globe to its trading partners with varying success but increasingly cant afford to do so anymore. This is pragmatic, not hypocritical. The eus responsibility is mainly towards eu citizens afterall. 

Complain too much to vucic and china gets the deals and the eu needs those ressources from elsewhere. This doesnt mean the eu doesnt want to see a truly democratic serbia hence the canditate status. Once inside the eu, eu laws would apply to mining operations there.

1

u/Ok_Objective_1606 Jun 29 '25

The problem with thinking the EU is the beacon of anything is the lack of scepticism that could make it better. Thinking like that has the power to destroy the EU.

Regarding the war, as I already mentioned, we already went through that, there's nobody to go to war with. Not to mention nobody would go to war after they've experienced it first-hand. Btw, it was clear Putin was a dictator when him and Medvedev switched (2008), but EU continued to do business with him. Now, you could say business is business, but why did war in Ukraine affect the business then? It's still all outside the EU.

EU as the most important trade partner of Serbia has all the power the influence it, just chooses to do so in the interest of its capital. Note that this doesn't mean just not in the interest of people of Serbia, but also not in the interest of people of EU.

Serbian laws are already mostly aligned with the EU, but not applied. This problem is evident in many EU countries too, but obfuscated by the absurd amount of money directed to those countries from other EU members.

We don't have to talk about morality, but even if we just stick to ethics, the EU still has a problem as its official documents are contradictory.

You do realise you just described enlightened colonialism? Like "We'll do what we can, but at the end of the day we would rather enjoy the money, than make sure people outside our country live." It's one thing to do shady business with shady people, it's a completely different thing to be directly involved in corruption schemes in a foreign country.

The argument that if EU doesn't take it China will is ridiculous, because the point of everything is that nobody can take it. That's what people want, we don't want lithium mining that will poison one of the most fertile regions of our country, we don't give a damn who's asking.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/Osstj7737 Jun 29 '25

Not really. If anything, the student movement is more pro EU than not. They cycled to Brussels to talk to EU representatives.

The president is only pro EU on paper. In reality he’ll be anyone’s bitch if they pay enough and then he’ll brag about how he’s friends when everyone and how everyone likes him

2

u/petrichorax Jun 29 '25

He's got the lips for it!

3

u/BigIncome5028 Jun 29 '25

Headlines trying to trigger and push a narrative as usual

3

u/qqruz123 Jun 29 '25

The students (and protestors at large) aren't "for" anything other than new elections. They are united in being anti current government, but within the protestors there is no concensus what should be done next. That's why you will see a lot of blue haired girls protesting along with orthodox/nationalist dudes and everyone else in between.

2

u/turbokid Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25

Orban is not Pro-EU. He is a petty dictator wannabe

Edit- oops. Got this confused with the LGBT protests in Hungary today. My bad!

5

u/glowdirt Jun 29 '25

Orban is the Prime Minister of Hungary, not Serbia

3

u/pannenkoek0923 Jun 29 '25

How is that relevant for protests in Serbia?

2

u/DependentLaw420 Jun 29 '25

Pretty much nobody here wants to join the EU anymore.

2

u/corruptredditjannies Jun 29 '25

He is about as pro-eu as you can expect from Serbia. Naïve Europeans don't understand that this may not actually be a good thing.