BELGRADE, SERBIA — Serbia's university students are planning their first major rally of the year on Saturday at Slavija Square in Belgrade. Thousands of people are expected to gather from across the country.

The student movement was launched in response to a train station tragedy at Novi Sad in November 2024, when a concrete canopy crash killed 16 people in northern Serbia. Many people believed the disaster was the result of corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects.

The movement led a wave of mass anti-corruption street protests last year and blocked university faculties for months in 2025. The faculty blockade forced the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and his government. Protesters demanded early elections, which President Aleksandar Vucic has not called. Students now aim to influence elections later this year or next to oust Vucic's government.

"We hope a lot of people will come and spend the day with us, and then continue to support the students because we are preparing for the elections," youth representative Isidora Jovanovic said ahead of Saturday's rally. "Serbia needs a change, and students will bring that change."

Jovanovic said organizers will take measures to ensure no rally participants leave with injuries or bad feelings. Days before the rally, an elderly man was injured when a driver broke up a traffic blockade in central Belgrade. Violence also occurred during a local election in March.

On Tuesday, police separated Vucic's loyalists from students printing "Students win" slogans at Slavija Square. Vucic's loyalists set up a park camp outside the presidency building last March as a shield against protesters, and several attacks on protesters and journalists were reported around the camp. Experts later said the disruption of a protest at Slavija Square last March involved the use of a sonic weapon against peaceful demonstrators. The government denied that a sonic weapon was used.

"We finally have a political group that can challenge the (ruling) Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vucic," said Dusan Vucicevic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, who said the youth movement has grown into a political player with broad support.

Pro-government media have branded the protesters as terrorists and foreign agents who wish to destroy the country. Reports of police use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions of protesters have drawn international scrutiny. Serbia's democratic backsliding could cost the country around 1.5 billion euros in European Union funding for membership candidate nations.

"Everyone should go to the rally out of principle because of the situation," university student Branislav Vasic said. "There is the strength for change as long as people want it."