Novi Sad residents celebrate after Vučić cancels visit

Novi Sad residents turned the cancellation of Aleksandar Vučić’s planned visit into a celebration, filling the city’s Freedom Square for a gathering that organizers presented as a victory.

A stage appeared in the square only hours before the event. Organizers told N1 that communal police fined them for setting it up without reporting the gathering. The crowd danced to live music, while speakers declared, “The Mafia capitulated.”

The gathering officially began when runners arrived from the Novi Sad University campus wearing shirts that read, “I’m Running for the Students.” A spokesman for the Novi Sad Citizens’ Assembly told N1 that the central message was that the city was free.

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I’m Running for the Students.

Vučić canceled a Serbian Progressive Party gathering planned for Friday. He said he wanted to prevent clashes between anti-government protesters and what he called “the embittered citizens who can no longer take the terror on the streets.”

The cancellation marked the eighth time Vučić had pledged to visit Novi Sad since the railway station tragedy on Nov. 1, 2024, which claimed 16 lives. He previously visited once, when a protest outside SNS party offices became chaotic, but did not pay tribute to the victims.

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The embittered citizens who can no longer take the terror on the streets.