Serbian students nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Serbia's Gen Z (children born after 2000) want a different future for their country: a society without corruption and bloodshed. That has brought them to the streets for months to peacefully protest against the current regime and for a free and better future for their country, so that young people do not continue to massively move abroad.

The immediate cause of the protests was the collapse of the roof of the station building in Novi Sad on November 1st. "The accident in Novi Sad symbolises how the government deals with public works. Not quality, but enriching the political class is the priority," says Professor Peter Vermeersch, specialising in international and European studies, who is following the situation in Serbia for Veto.

Since November, protests have been held against the Serbian government. The youth are fed up with the administration. They have had enough of all the bribery, corruption, fraud, aggression, and all the cheap macho behaviour that is reminiscent of an authoritarian regime. Tens of thousands peacefully take to the streets in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and other smaller cities and were rewarded with a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has been in power since 2012, and Aleksandar Vučić, the leader, has been president for the past eight years.

“We believe the system has been corrupt for some time, since our prime minister was assassinated,” says student Tina Pribićević (18) in a response to The Guardian.

In 2003, Zoran Đinđić, the then prime minister and supporter of democratic reforms, was assassinated in Belgrade due to his pro-Western reforms and his tough approach to organised crime.

Meanwhile, the students' resistance against corruption and authoritarianism in Serbia has been going on for nearly five months.

(FVDV - Source: The Guardian / Veto - Illustration: ©Unsplash)