Serbian farmers join striking university students’ 24-hour traffic blockade in Belgrade

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s striking university students on Monday launched a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the capital, Belgrade, stepping up pressure on the populist authorities over a deadly canopy collapse in November that killed 15 people.

Serbian farmers on tractors and thousands of citizens joined the blockade that followed weeks of protests demanding accountability of the deadly accident in the northern city of Novi Sad that critics have blamed on rampant government corruption.

A campaign of street demonstrations has posed the biggest challenge in years to the populist government’s firm grip on power in Serbia.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic, later on Monday urged dialogue with the students, saying that “we need to lower the tensions and start talking to each other.”

Students in the past have refused to meet with Vucic, saying the president is not entitled by the constitution to hold talks with them.

“Any kind of a crisis poses a serious problem for our economy,” said Vucic. “Such a situation in society is not good for anyone.”

Vucic has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia. He has accused the students of working for unspecified foreign powers to oust the government.

Several incidents have marked the street demonstrations in the past weeks, including drivers ramming into the crowds on two occasions, when two young women were injured.

Traffic police on Monday secured the student blockade to help avoid any similar incidents. Protesting students set up tents at the protest site, which is a key artery for the city commuters and toward the main north-south motorway.

Some students played volleyball, others sat down on blankets on the pavement or walked around on a warm day. The students also held a daily 15-minute commemoration silence at 11.52, the exact same time when the canopy at a train station in Novi Sad crashed down on Nov. 1.

Many in Serbia believe the huge concrete canopy fell down because of sloppy reconstruction work that resulted from corruption.

Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges against 13 people, including a government minister and several state officials. But the former construction minister Goran Vesic has been released from detention, fueling doubts over the investigation’s independence.

The main railway station in Novi Sad was renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure deal with Chinese state companies.