The hunger strikes of Dijana Hrka, mother of Stefan Hrka who died in the canopy collapse, and Milomir Jaćimović with his minor son, lay bare the criminal negligence and moral bankruptcy of Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). While citizens risk their lives demanding justice, the regime responds with cynicism, humiliation, and empty gestures proof that human suffering is irrelevant to SNS politics.
Political analyst Žarko Korać notes that the strikes strike at the very heart of the government’s incompetence and corruption, but the “hard core” of Vučić’s electorate remains unnervingly loyal, demonstrating the terrifying extent of SNS’ voter manipulation. “Hrka’s strike exposes the fact that the government’s recklessness and systemic corruption killed her son. Yet the regime refuses accountability, instead attempting to humiliate her with loud music in ‘Ćeciland’ right next to the protest,” Korać says.
Đorđe Vukadinović adds that Hrka’s hunger strike is an unprecedented challenge for Vučić personally. For once, the president cannot dismiss or intimidate his opposition with force or propaganda. Yet in predictable fashion, he resorted to staged concern, halting the music and issuing hollow calls for dialogue—symbolic gestures meant to hide his cruelty, not deliver justice.
The protests reveal a government that is indifferent, callous, and obsessed with optics over human lives. While desperate citizens fight for justice through hunger strikes, SNS continues its charade of loyalty and control, crushing accountability and normalizing impunity. Serbia is becoming not just a nation of angry citizens, but a country where desperation meets state violence and political manipulation.
This is the brutal reality: Vučić and SNS have created a system where life, truth, and justice are meaningless unless they serve the party’s power, leaving ordinary citizens to bleed while the regime protects itself.
