The tragic death of 15 people in Novi Sad, Serbia, after a canopy of the newly-reconstructed railway station collapsed unexpectedly on 1 November, risks undermining the trust in the construction industry, an area of key political importance to the ruling party. It also showcases the already existing lack of trust in the judicial system. Opposition and activist groups have mobilized under the slogan “Corruption Kills!”, while the ruling party is attempting to minimize political damage as polarization keeps growing.
The station in Novi Sad underwent significant reconstruction from September 2021 to July 2024 as a part of the high-speed railway project that is planned to connect Belgrade and Budapest. The construction of the high-speed railway was promoted by the ruling party as one of its greatest achievements in the modernization and economic development of Serbia.
There were not one, but two opening ceremonies of the Novi Sad railway station. In March 2022, it was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during the election campaigns in both Serbia and Hungary. The two leaders lauded it as the first part of the future Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway.
As it turned out, the construction was not nearly finished at the time and it resumed shortly afterwards. The station was opened again in July 2024, when Minister of Infrastructure Goran Vesić declared it “fully operational”.
Vesić was the first government official to resign following the tragedy, on 4 November. He was followed by his predecessor as Minister of Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirović, who resigned as the Minister of Trade on 20 November, after weeks of mounting public pressure. It was only the second time since 2012, when Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) came to power, that its Ministers resigned after a political scandal.
On 22 November 2024, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad announced that four public officials and nine persons involved in the construction were under investigation. Most of these people were arrested, including Goran Vesić, who was released on 27 November after the decision of the Higher Court in Novi Sad, which stated that, while there was enough ground for an investigation, there was not enough ground for his arrest.
Ruling party’s “cult of construction” endangered
For years, Serbia has been experiencing frequent political scandals, which SNS managed to weather more or less successfully. The collapse of the canopy, however, shook the foundations of one of its key narratives – that the party and President Vučić are successfully implementing construction projects which are propelling Serbia into a brighter economic future. This “cult of construction” is now in danger, analysts point out. It did not take long for Vučić to start visiting construction sights, attempting to restore the shaken trust.
Nevertheless, the Novi Sad tragedy has renewed interest in the longstanding issues with construction projects. In its 2024 Report on Serbia, published just two days before the collapse of the canopy, the European Commission stated that the country “has a tendency to circumvent its legislation” in the area of public procurement “through intergovernmental agreements and special laws”.
This was exactly how the Novi Sad railway station was reconstructed. There was no open competition – the project was awarded to a consortium of Chinese companies, which hired local subcontractors, based on the Serbia-China international agreement. The contract with Chinese companies is still a secret, while the price of the reconstruction of the station – EUR 16 million – has been described as potentially inflated by several experts.
But the corruptive aspect of construction works in Seriba is an old and, to an extent, normalized story. A new aspect which has emerged is the quality of works and the ability of state institutions to guarantee their safety. Ana Ferik-Ivanovič, Director of the Society of Architects of Novi Sad, stated for the Radar weekly that this organization is now worried about all ongoing reconstruction works in the city, some of which were approved extremely quickly and non-transparently.
Meanwhile, opposition MP Jelena Jerinić wrote in an op-ed titled “New incidents are looming” that the main railway station in Belgrade, Prokop, was opened prematurely during the 2023 election campaign. In recent weeks, opposition and a part of the media started pointing out that many recently constructed objects have been opened without receiving all necessary licenses.
The ruling party has attempted to downplay this fact, claiming that the same practices were present during the pre-2012 administrations. Nevertheless, even the small infrastructure failures started to receive outsized attention after the Novi Sad tragedy, which probably prompted SNS to show more signs of accountability than ever before. The question of whether the judicial process will be comprehensive enough, however, remains wide open.
Lack of confidence in the judiciary persists
Until 21 November, no person was charged or arrested, leading to a tense political atmosphere in which a part of the public suspected that the ruling party was trying to protect its allies. Even after the arrests, and especially after Goran Vesić’s release, suspicions are still high.
According to the opinion polls, the Serbian public is polarized when it comes to confidence in the judiciary. In previous years, investigative media outlets uncovered a series of potential corruption and even criminal scandals involving the members of the government, yet nobody has been investigated.
A part of the public is already raising suspicions about the fact that there have been no charges of corruption and that the investigation does not involve money flows. The main subcontractor on the project was a local company Starting, which has also been hired in recent years on lucrative infrastructure projects of political significance for the government, including the Belgrade Waterfront.
Opposition politician Marinika Tepić claimed that the company enjoys the political protection of the Serbian Progressive Party. Meanwhile, the engineer Zoran Đajić, who worked as a consultant on the project, said on television Nova S that, during his hearing at the public prosecutor’s office, nobody had even heard of Starting, which is strange given its role.
Đajić was the first and so far the only worker on the project to alert the public on the potential causes of the tragedy and irregularities during the construction. In a statement for Danas following the publication of the charges, he said that he found it “curious” that nobody from Starting and no Chinese citizens were among the suspects.
Opposition mobilizes, political tensions rise
The shockwaves caused by the tragedy and the lack of trust that all those responsible would be prosecuted almost immediately led to the mobilization of opposition and activist groups. Large protests were held in Novi Sad and Belgrade, and smaller acts of civic disobedience continue to take place across Serbia on a weekly basis.
The massive protest in Novi Sad on 5 November received significant attention. Most controversy was caused when a group of protesters started vandalizing the City Hall and clashing with the police. Opposition parties subsequently released a press statement, condemning the violence of the “paid hooligans who were organized by the government so that they could paint a peaceful protest of the tens of thousands of citizens as violent”.
On the next day, the Ministry of Interior announced that 14 persons, including an opposition councillor, were detained in the context of the protest in Novi Sad. The grounds for the arrest of all detainees were disputed by their lawyers and parts of the public, which led to the arrests being described as politically motivated.
The release of the arrested became one of the demands of the protests, which was finally fulfilled by the end of the month. A report on police brutality against a 74-year-old protester also caused significant controversy and is yet to be fully investigated.
In mid-November, 85 opposition MPs submitted a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, who was the mayor of Novi Sad when the reconstruction began. A requirement for this motion to be put on the agenda is the support of 60 MPs, which was met. However, speaker of parliament Ana Brnabić (SNS) refused to put the motion on the agenda, arguing that two MPs from the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP) said their signatures were used without their knowledge.
Opposition MPs argued that Brnabić’s refusal to put the motion on the agenda represented a violation of the Constitution. During the parliamentary session on Monday, 25 November, the opposition attempted to obstruct the debate as a protest against Brnabić’s decision. This led to a physical clash between the ruling and opposition MPs. Nobody was injured, and the ruling majority subsequently rammed the legislative proposal through without any debate.
The government strikes back with spin and provocations
In the early days after the tragedy, members of the ruling party tried to deny that the canopy was a part of the reconstruction of the railway station and to attribute the responsibility to the original architect of the station, which was built in 1964. They have since re-focused their communication on attacking the opposition. The slogan used during the tense parliamentary session on 25 November was that “Opposition wants a war, while Serbia wants to work”.
Mutual accusations that the current political trajectory is leading to a civil war have become frequent in clashes between the government and the opposition in recent days. On 28 November, the opposition posted what it claims to be leaked voice messages of Damir Zobenica, an SNS official, ordering the party members to provoke incidents during the 15-minute road blockades scheduled for 29 November across the country.
President Vučić dismissed this accusation and said that the recording might have been produced by artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, multiple provocations of the protesters have already started to take place regularly, and some of the provocateurs have indeed been identified by the media as members of the ruling party.
In the meantime, pro-government media have reactivated the old narrative that the opposition is “vulturing” a tragedy in Novi Sad for political gain, the same argument that was used following the 2023 mass shootings which triggered a wave of protests. Another old narrative that is being used is that the opposition wants to overthrow a government in a coloured revolution, for which it receives support from the West.
In his appearance on TV Pink on 28 November, President Vučić added a new angle to the story, related to the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.
“All of them are regarding each tragedy as an opportunity… But they are panicking, and I understand that nervousness is increasing. They are not sure whether Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will halt the money to NED (National Endowment for Democracy) with which they are filling the NGOs”, Vučić said, referring to the task Musk and Ramaswamy received in the Trump administration to improve government efficiency.
Vučić added that they are receiving this financing to weaken the position of Serbia in the world and to weaken it inside, using another longstanding narrative.
“This is because Serbia is a self-reliant, independent country which will take no orders from anybody. So, the bosses are paying and the servants are following orders”, the President of Serbia said.
One of the topics Vučić also addressed during his TV appearance on 28 November was the state of the atomic shelters in Serbia, which, according to him, are in need of systemic repair due to the escalating tensions on the Ukrainian front. “My prediction is that the situation will keep getting out of control”, Vučić said.
The topic of the possible outbreak of an all-out war between the West and Russia has also featured prominently on the front pages of the pro-government media, following the decision of the US to allow Ukraine to use its long-range missiles. Critics, however, have pointed out that, while the situation is serious, the ruling party is again taking advantage of it to shift the attention of the public away from the tragedy in Novi Sad.
Despite the coordinated reaction to the protests, it seems that the ruling party is facing its biggest political challenge so far, as large sections of the public do not show any signs of readiness to let this issue go. In the circumstances of deep polarization and the apparent readiness of the government to provoke incidents for political gain, fears that the situation might get out of control intensify.