Belgrade-based journalist Nikola Krstić has commented on the mass student protests held in Slavija Square in Belgrade, where more than 100,000 citizens reportedly gathered, describing them as a serious blow to the regime of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
In an interview with Bosnian media, Krstić said the protests do not only represent dissatisfaction with a political leader, but mark the beginning of a deep social confrontation with a system, which he claims, has been built on corruption, looting, and a dark political legacy.
“This is a new political hurricane that will clean up the entire forty-year hell in which we live,” he stated.
According to Krstić, the authorities in Serbia attempted to prevent citizens from other parts of the country from attending the protest by making bus and train transport to Belgrade more difficult, but despite this, the massive turnout demonstrated that public dissatisfaction is greater than expected.
He stressed that the current revolt is not only about the removal of Vučić and “his mafia entourage,” but about dismantling an entire system that, in his view, is based on looting and corruption, war crimes, questionable privatizations, the humiliation of citizens, and the destruction of any form of solidarity and community.
“The regime of Aleksandar Vučić is the ugliest face of this long-term process, and the time has come for that process to stop,” the Serbian journalist said.
Krstić added that the student movement is creating new forms of civic organization through plenums, self-organization, and solidarity networks, which he sees as the embryo of a society different from the current system, which he described as “predatory capitalism.”
Commenting on the reaction of pro-government media after the protest, he said that Serbia’s political establishment is in panic and no longer knows how to deal with this new wave of discontent.
“May 23 in Belgrade showed that this movement could turn into a historic confrontation with an era that has turned Serbia into a paradise for tycoons, war criminals, and economic predators,” he said.
Regarding early elections, Krstić said he does not believe Vučić will call elections before 2027, but warned that time is no longer working in the regime’s favor.
“The system relied on citizens becoming tired and forgetting, but it turned out that the accumulated anger over the years is much deeper than day-to-day politics. Now we are seeing its eruption,” he concluded.
