BELGRADE: Thousands of people on Sunday vowed to keep on fighting for justice and rule of law in Serbia as they demanded that President Aleksandar Vucic call a snap parliamentary election following months of persistent demonstrations that have challenged his firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
Protesters led by university students blocked bridges in the capital Belgrade and rallied in 30 other Serbian cities and towns as they also marked exactly seven months since a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in the north, killing 16 people and sparking the massive wave of anti-corruption protests.
“The whole of Serbia has risen,” protesting students said in a speech that was read at all the rallies at the same time. “There will be no more silence, there will be no more surrender!”
Many people in Serbia believe that the deadly Nov. 1 canopy collapse in Novi Sad was the result of flawed renovation work on the station building, and they link the disaster to alleged government corruption in major infrastructure projects with Chinese state companies.
Vucic, whom critics have accused of imposing authoritarian rule in Serbia since coming to power over a decade ago, initially dismissed the possibility of holding early elections but on Friday suggested they could take place, though without saying exactly when.
Sunday’s protests included commemoration ceremonies for the victims of the Novi Sad crash and student marches and blockades. In Belgrade, crowds halted traffic at two key bridges over the Sava River for three hours, while protesters in Novi Sad carried a white wreath for the canopy collapse victims as they walked toward the crash site.
Mina Miletic, from Belgrade, said she is encouraged by so many people fighting together for the same goal: “The rule of law and life in a decent country.”
Vucic has accused the protesters of working for unspecified Western powers to “destroy Serbia.” Pro-government media on Sunday described the blockades in Belgrade as “terror” and alleged falsely that “only a handful” of people joined the rallies.
Most media in Serbia are controlled by the ruling populists, often lashing out at government opponents and accusing them of anti-state activities.
The student movement is seeking a snap vote, arguing that the current government cannot meet their demands for justice for the crash victims. Presidential and parliamentary elections are otherwise due some time in 2027.
No one has been sentenced in connection with the tragedy in Novi Sad and doubts prevail that ongoing legal proceedings will uncover the alleged corruption behind the crash.
Serbia is formally seeking European Union entry but the ruling populists have been accused of clamping down on democratic freedoms, including free media. Vucic’s authorities have stepped up pressure on protesters, including police detentions, intimidation and physical attacks.

SOFIA: A Bulgarian group of dozens of cyber activists at first clubbed together to battle Russian disinformation, but they have since found other foes — like animal abusers.
They call themselves the BG Elves, which both refers to the kind-hearted characters of Scandinavian mythology and hints at a rivalry with the Internet’s malicious trolls.
The collective of about 70 anonymous cybersecurity experts have made a name for themselves by creating problems for their adversaries.
One of their latest efforts was helping an animal rights NGO uncover evidence that led to the March arrest of a woman and a man accused of selling videos online of hundreds of animals being tortured to death.
“Our work was crucial, because for the first time a crime was solved in Bulgaria based on OSINT data, proving that our efforts can produce concrete results,” software developer Petko Petkov, the Elves’ only public face, told AFP.
OSINT refers to open-source intelligence, which is information gathered with digital investigation techniques like reverse image search and geolocation.
In the summer of 2024, the NGO alerted the cyber sleuths to videos posted on Telegram of a masked woman torturing animals. The Elves tracked her down within hours.
Using OSINT, they were also able to trace the locations where the videos of cats, rabbits and guinea pigs being tortured on camera were filmed by her accomplice.
The videos sparked widespread protests in Bulgaria, and prompted the government to propose emergency legislation.


Set up in 2023 in response to pro-Kremlin disinformation flooding Bulgaria, the group first zeroed in on the key players involved in the campaigns.
“There were about 10 of us in a chat group, we refined the concept, then put out a call for volunteers,” Petkov told AFP about the group’s founding.
They have grown significantly since and include experts in cybersecurity, social engineering and databases.
“We are not hackers, we are researchers,” said Petkov, 37, who moved from central Bulgaria to Kyiv shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Dedicated to activism, the Elves try to fight the deluge of disinformation by disseminating “counter-propaganda that makes people think,” he said.
“We noticed that a (disinfo) narrative... takes some time to reach people. Our idea was to flood the space with humor and irony before the propaganda takes hold,” said Petkov.
Recently, they launched a viral meme campaign targeting the main false claims about Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone, distributing the content through profiles embedded within major disinformation networks.
In March, BG Elves supported a Romanian journalist in an investigation that exposed a Russia-linked disinformation and propaganda network funded through online advertising.


In the wake of the recent arrests, Bulgaria proposed a bill in parliament, which allows for higher prison terms of up to 10 years for torturing animals.
Nearly 300 people have been convicted of such offenses in the last five years, but few end up in prison.
Petya Altimirska, president of the animal welfare association CAAI, who had reached out to the Elves for help in the abuse case, has since received numerous reports of “even more serious” cases, adding that the cyber sleuths are already “on it.”
While the group was praised for exposing the animal abuse, it has also faced criticism and numerous threats for its provocative approach and alleged political bias.