In November 2024, a series of anti-corruption protests began in Serbia following the collapse of the canopy of the Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 people and left one severely injured. These protests have generally been peaceful, but there have been also many incidents. Some of them include the following:
On January 16th, during a 15-minute blockade in Belgrade, a car drove through a group of students, carrying a female student on the car roof for several meters without stopping. She was later hospitalized and the driver was arrested and charged with attempted murder. The following day, on January 17th, an elderly man with a pocket knife tried to attack the students protesting at the Medical Faculty in Novi Sad, but the students were able to disarm him.
On January 28th, students in Novi Sad were attacked by masked individuals with baseball bats at the offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, also known as SNS (Serbian: Srpska Napredna Stranka). Injured Students were hospitalized and one student suffered a dislocated jaw. This incident intensified ongoing protests across Serbia, leading to the resignations of Prime Minister, Miloš Vučević (1974), and a Mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić (1977), on the same day.
Comments
What an awful world we live in, so pleased to have discovered the joy of painting! Really like the way you have done their jackets.
The original photo was taken during one of the 15-minute blockades in Belgrade. These blockades are also known as "Stop, Serbia" (Serbian:"Zastani, Srbijo"), which is held at 11:52 CET, the time when the canopy collapsed, and it's held for 15 minutes to symbolize 15 lives lost in the disaster. The name is the opposite of "Serbia must not stop" (Serbian: "Srbija ne sme da stane"), a parliamentary group led by SNS.
Looks like it is the same everywhere: if you are attacking young people blocking the streets to protest for change you are probably on the wrong side of history.
On December 10th, during a 15-minute blockage in Belgrade, while students were paying respects to lives lost in a tragedy, a man physically attacked one of the students. He was soon arrested and charged with assault. The entire footage was caught on camera and this photo later became one of the iconic photos of these protests.
Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwucwMBuU0s&t=90s
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What is the reference photograph here?