NOVI SAD / STRASBOURG – A group of eighty students and members of the academic community kicked off a bicycle tour on Thursday morning from Novi Sad, heading to Strasbourg, the headquarters of the Council of Europe and other European institutions.
With this ride, students want to raise awareness among European officials about recent political developments in Serbia. The students plan to submit letters the Council of Europe and European Parliament.
For over four months, mass protests have been taking place throughout Serbia. During this period, students have walked and cycled thousands of kilometres across the country.
Now, the students set out on the 1300-kilometer journey, and they are expected to arrive in Strasbourg on 15 or 16 April. According to the plan, they will cycle for 12 hours and cover around 100 kilometers each day.
The students will travel to Strasbour via Subotica, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, Munich, Augsburg, Ulm and Stuttgart. They are expected to be welcomed along the way by the Serbian diaspora as well as students from European universities.
The protests in Serbia, now ongoing for more than four months, were initiated by students who blocked all four universities in the country. The student movement began to take shape in late November when students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade initiated a blockade of their faculty.
This action followed an incident in which they were assaulted during a street protest commemorating the Novi Sad victims. Soon, students from Serbia’s major universities joined the movement, expanding the blockade, which remains ongoing.
Amid widespread concerns over institutional negligence in the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station, students demanded full transparency regarding all project-related documents. They also called for accountability for those responsible for the attacks on students since November.
Public support for the movement quickly spread nationwide, with various social groups—including farmers, teachers, lawyers, and medical associations—expressing solidarity. The protests have since grown into the largest demonstrations in Serbia since the fall of Slobodan Milošević, with large gatherings taking place in Novi Sad and Belgrade on multiple occasions.