Democracy Talk #5: Serbian students’ fight against autocratization - Key lessons for democracy defenders in the Balkans and beyond

with Prof. Daniel Bochsler | Tanja Malle | Nino Gozalishvili

Since last November, Serbia has been rocked by massive student-led protests triggered by the collapse of the Novi Sad train station canopy, which killed 16 people, and the government's subsequent reluctance to hold those responsible to account. Probably the largest protests in Serbia's history, surpassing even the protests that brought down Slobodan Milosevic's regime in 2000, raised hopes of an imminent fall of Aleksandar Vucic's regime. Although weakened by the protests, there is no immediate end in sight for Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has turned Serbia into one of the fastest autocratizing countries. We will discuss key lessons from the Serbian protests that can be useful for other countries, such as how to successfully mobilize citizens on the streets and the limits of civil society as an actor of democratic resistance.

Democracy Talk #5 is organized in cooperation with CEU's Political Science Department.