The depoliticization of protest: understanding the 2024/2025 Serbian students’ uprising

The 2024/2025 student protests in Serbia emerged in the wake of a deadly infrastructural collapse in Novi Sad, catalyzing nationwide outrage and revealing systemic failures rooted in corruption and political cronyism. The movement marked a radical redefinition of civic engagement in a post-socialist, post-ideological society. While rejecting political co-optation, ideological affiliation, and traditional opposition frameworks, students across Serbia—beginning with the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade—organized peaceful, symbolically charged demonstrations that called for transparency, ethical governance, and institutional accountability. This article situates the protests within Serbia’s historical legacy of student activism while highlighting the distinctiveness of the current movement. By embracing depoliticization as both critique and strategy, the protesters complicated conventional understandings of political agency and legitimacy. Their refusal to articulate a clear program or leadership structure both protected the movement from co-optation and exposed it to distortion and delegitimization. The paper critically examines the regime’s calculated response, oscillating between repression and rhetorical appropriation, and explores whether this moment signals a sustainable shift in democratic practice. Ultimately, the protests illuminate both the possibilities and limitations of moral mobilization in a compromised political environment, raising key questions about the future of civic resistance and institutional reform in Serbia.