From Belgrade to Brussels, protesting Serbian students to run 2,000 km to stir EU

Novi Sad: After cycling all the way to France, Serbia’s protesting students on Friday embarked on a new endeavour — a nearly 2,000-kilometer run to Brussels aimed at drawing European Union attention to their months-long struggle against corruption and for the rule of law in the Balkan country.

More than 20 students set off from the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad for a relay-style “ultra-marathon” that is expected to last for 18 days.

Cheered off by hundreds of people, the students headed toward the eastern Croatian town of Osijek, the first stop on their journey.

Nikola Kojcin acknowledged that “it’s going to be really hard, but we’ll make it, we have to make it.”

University students have been a key force behind a nationwide anti-graft movement in Serbia rattling populist President Aleksandar Vucic. He is formally leading Serbia toward EU membership but has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms while boosting ties with Russia and China.

Many pro-democracy Serbs are disappointed with what they view as the EU’s lukewarm response to Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian ways. The students said their run to EU headquarters was a “reminder” that the bloc should insist on its own values of freedom, dignity and the rule of law.

Vucic has repeatedly accused the student protesters of staging a “colour revolution” and working to “destroy Serbia” under orders from abroad. He told Informer TV on Thursday evening that Serbia has been “attacked” and blamed the protests for alleged huge damage to the

country’s economy.

The runners are carrying a letter they hope will be read at the EU institutions “so people could hear a bit more about the deep political and social crisis in Serbia,” explained student Aleksa Dimitrijevic.