NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — After cycling all the way to France, Serbia’s protesting students on Friday embarked on a new endeavor — a nearly 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) run to Brussels aimed at drawing European Union attention to their months-long struggle against corruption and for the rule of law in the Balkan country.
More than 20 students set off from the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad for a relay-style “ultra-marathon” that is expected to last for 18 days. Cheered off by hundreds of people, the students headed toward the eastern Croatian town of Osijek, the first stop on their journey.
Nikola Kojcin acknowledged that “it’s going to be really hard, but we’ll make it, we have to make it.”
University students have been a key force behind a nationwide anti-graft movement in Serbia rattling populist President Aleksandar Vucic. He is formally leading Serbia toward EU membership but has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms while boosting ties with Russia and China.
Many pro-democracy Serbs are disappointed with what they view as the EU’s lukewarm response to Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian ways. The students said their run to EU headquarters was a “reminder” that the bloc should insist on its own values of freedom, dignity and the rule of law.
Vucic has repeatedly accused the student protesters of staging a “color revolution” and working to “destroy Serbia” under orders from abroad. He told Informer TV on Thursday evening that Serbia has been “attacked” and blamed the protests for alleged huge damage to the country’s economy.
The students said in a press release that they “are not asking to be rescued” by the EU but are “sending a clear reminder to Europe: democratic values … must be upheld not only in official declarations but in public awareness and collective action.”
The runners are carrying a letter they hope will be read at the EU institutions “so people could hear a bit more about the deep political and social crisis in Serbia,” explained student Aleksa Dimitrijevic.
Almost daily demonstrations were sparked nearly six months ago by a deadly train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad which killed 16 people and which critics blamed on negligence and disrespect of safety regulations fueled by rampant corruption in state-backed infrastructure projects with China.
Symbolically, the student runners started their marathon journey to Brussels from outside the now-closed central railway station in Novi Sad where tons of concrete crashed without warning on the people standing or strolling underneath on Nov. 1.
Many protesters in Serbia have faced attacks during traffic blockades and were questioned by police in the past months.
The students who cycles to Strasbourg, France, in early April met officials from the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. Once in Brussels, the students hope to meet with the EU Commission and European Parliament officials.
