After the fatal accident in Novi Sad, where the roof of a railway station collapsed and killed 14 people, thousands of people marched through the city center in protest against the government. They shouted “Band of thieves!“ and “Murderers, the street will judge you!”, as reported by the news portal danas.rs. Many of the protesters had painted their hands with red paint. According to media reports, some demonstrators threw stones and bottles at the local headquarters of President Aleksandar Vucic's ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
Last Friday, the visor of the main railway station in Novi Sad collapsed. Two of the fourteen victims were children. Numerous other bystanders were injured. The cause of the accident has not yet been clarified. The fact is, however, that the affected roof was not replaced as part of the complete reconstruction of the station.
Unclear backstory
The main contractor for the renovation is a Chinese company, which emphasizes that the roof in question was not part of the renovation project. It is part of another, bigger project – the Belgrade-Novi Sad-Budapest railway line, which in the future will run faster trains than before. This project in Serbia and neighboring Hungary is also being carried out by Chinese construction companies financed by loans from Chinese banks.
Many citizens in Serbia suspect that corruption processes are behind the lack of transparency in these projects. Protesters in Novi Sad demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vučević, a close confidant of Vučić who served as mayor of Novi Sad from 2012 to 2022. On Monday, Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesic resigned but denied criminal responsibility .