For the past 3 months, thousands of Serbia’s students have taken to the streets to protest what they say is rampant corruption in the country’s public institutions. Now, an increasing number of scientists and learned societies are coming out to support the peaceful movement that has been gathering pace.
Last week, the Science Union of Serbia, which represents many of the country’s 17,000 researchers, became the latest scientific body to throw its weight behind the protesters. In a 6 February letter to government officials, the union said it supported the “fight for a better society.”
But some scientists say researchers should be making more of an effort to join the students on the streets. “While they are running over our children with cars, the scientific community should be by their side,” says Milan Ivanov, a medical researcher at the University of Belgrade. “These are our future colleagues; they should know that they are not alone.”
Serbian students have been demonstrating since 1 November 2024, when 15 people, including a 6-year-old child, were killed when the canopy of a newly renovated train station collapsed. Protesters see the incident as the culmination of years of bad governance and corruption and are demanding reforms.
The government initially tried to draw a line under the tragedy by promising a full investigation and trying to disperse the protests. But public support for the protesters only increased and several ministers resigned. Instances of violence against the protesters, including two cases in which protesters were run over by cars and reports of professors being physically attacked, further galvanized public support.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told local media in late January that the government has met all of the students’ demands, which include releasing documents about the railway project, launching criminal investigations into the assaults on protesters, and providing extra funding for higher education. But the students reject that assertion, saying for instance that many documents related to the train station renovation remain under wraps.
The largely peaceful protests have reportedly attracted more than 100,000 people on some days. Some protesters have been blockading key roads in major cities, as well as occupying dozens of university facilities.
The blockades have prevented many scientists from reaching their offices and laboratories, and disrupted other campus activities, says Dejan Vukobratović, an information technology researcher at the University of Novi Sad. There, teaching and exams have been suspended, says psychologist Bojana Bodroža. Many staff have dropped their usual work in order to engage with the student protesters at the blockades, and run debates, lectures, and reading clubs.
Keeping international research teams abreast of the latest developments and anticipating possible risks “makes the already stressful work on research projects even more stressful,” Vukobratović says. He worries efforts to obtain new grants could be delayed, because many administrative offices have reduced staff.
But despite the disruptions, Vukobratović says he—and most other academics—still supports the students. “Their requests are not student affairs, they affect society as a whole,” he says.
A growing number of research institutions, including the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the University of Belgrade, and the Institute for International Politics and Economics, have also signaled their support. On 29 January, nearly 100 scientists at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade signed an open letter backing what they called “the fight for the establishment of the rule of law.” Two days later, the Institute for Biological Research Siniša Stanković released a statement that said, “Science and education cannot thrive in a society that does not allow critical opinion and punishes those who advocate truth, justice, transparency, law-abiding, and accountability.”
Some protesters and academics have welcomed these statements, but others are more skeptical. “The support is weak and formal,” Ivanov says. “Instead of written support, we should join the students on the street,” he says. “I think that we have failed as a community.”
Igor Stanković of the Institute of Physics holds a similar view. “The issues the students are protesting against—such as corruption and lack of accountability—are deeply intertwined with the challenges we face in the research sector,” he says.
Serbia’s science ministry, education ministry, and the Office of the President did not respond to requests for comment.
More: https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-rally-support-serbia-s-anticorruption-protests
