Two rallies took place in Nis over the weekend -- a student protest and a gathering of the followers of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, both of which passed without major incidents.
The students occupying the University of Nis called for a snap parliamentary election so as, they said, to free captive state institutions. They also demanded accountability for the collapse of the concrete overhang at the main railway station in Novi Sad on Nov. 1, 2024, BETA reported. The protest concluded a little before 8 p.m. without any incidents.
At the other rally in Nis, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he was done with the students' demands and that he did not want to hear about them any more, while extraordinary elections would take place when the responsible institutions decided. Vucic's message to the protesting students demanding an extraordinary parliamentary election was "do not demand it too much" as the ruling coalition would carry off an even more decisive victory in the election.
Danilo Vukovic, a sociologist of law and professor at the Belgrade School of Law, said that the rally in Nis was symbolically an important step for the regime "because it has to restore faith in its own strength." "Both among voters and among those who are much more important in this situation than their voters -- people in spheres of influence in politics and the economy, who could begin to think that the regime no longer has control over political and business processes in the country," Vukovic told Insajder
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