Hundreds of thousands take to the streets as anti-corruption protest engulfs Serbia’s capital

By AFP 16 March 2025, 2:35 am 2 Edit

A sea of people converged in Serbia’s capital Belgrade yesterday in what was the largest of a series of anti-corruption demonstrations that have upended the Balkan country in recent months.

At one point the crowd stretched for nearly two kilometres, with people filling the streets in and around the parliament and the capital’s main pedestrian square.

“We have gathered in the streets primarily to express our complete dissatisfaction after years of dictatorship, lawlessness, and corruption,” said one demonstrator, Ognjen Djordjevic, a 28-year-old resident from Belgrade.

The movement formed after 15 people were killed when a railway station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in November, igniting long-simmering anger over alleged corruption and lax oversight in construction projects.

After the rally, the interior ministry said that at least 107,000 people had turned out.

The Public Assembly Archive — a group that monitors crowd size — gives a much higher figure. It estimates that between 275,000 to 325,000 people took to the streets.

If that estimate is correct, it would make the protest one of the largest in Serbia’s recent history.