Hundreds march in Sremski Karlovci over threats to activist

Several hundred people filled the street outside the Karlovci Gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci on Friday evening for a rally called „Karlovci Against Thugs”. The trigger was a set of threats made to activist Justina Arsic a week earlier, in the middle of the town. The gathering was called by the Sremski Karlovci Citizens’ Assembly.

People began arriving at 7.30 p.m. in front of the school. The march set off at 8.10 p.m., heading from the gymnasium toward the town market, which is where the incident happened. Alongside local residents, the column included activists, bikers, members of citizens’ assemblies from nearby towns and students.

What happened on July 23

The incident took place on a Thursday, at around 7 p.m. According to the account organisers gave in their call to protest, two men approached Justina Arsic near the market. One threatened her with rape, the other said he would run protesters over with his car.

Teacher Marija Vasic read out sections of the police record in which those threats were logged. Her line from the stage was also the shortest summary of why people had come out.

„No one is alone. Justina, we are with you forever!”

Vasic went on to contrast the position of those who make threats with that of those who protest. „They are all free while we are locked up without grounds,” she said.

Why the crowd stood silent for 16 minutes

At 7.52 p.m. the crowd observed 16 minutes of silence for the victims of the canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station. That ritual, one minute for each of the 16 people killed on November 1, 2024, has followed protest gatherings across Serbia for close to two years. In Sremski Karlovci it carries extra weight, since the town sits only a few kilometres from Novi Sad.

The mix was unusual even by the standards of recent protests. A rally over a threat aimed at one person opened with a broad act of mourning, and only then turned to the reason it had been called. In their announcement, the organisers asked that the streets of Karlovci be freed of „violence, thugs and regime agitators”, which set an openly political frame around a case that still has no legal classification.

Who the two men are said to be

The informal group „The Fight Is an Obligation” claims the two men are members of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and that they had earlier taken part in an attack on schoolchildren on November 29. That claim has not been confirmed by an independent source, and no state body has released any information about the identity or party affiliation of the people being named.

One local resident also spoke, saying the only way to fight back is for people to defend one another. Among the activists at the gathering was Brana Matuski of the Karlovci List citizens’ group.

What have the police and prosecutors said?

Nothing. Seven days after the incident, and by the time the rally took place, neither the police nor the prosecution had commented on the case. There has been no statement on whether a criminal complaint was filed, how the offence was classified, or whether any measure was imposed on anyone.

That silence, judging by the tone of the rally, was the second reason people turned up. A threat of rape and a threat to kill with a vehicle are not misdemeanour matters, and they are decided by a prosecutor rather than at a police station. As long as there is no word on what is being done, it remains unclear whether a case file exists at all.

The next move belongs to the prosecution. If another stretch of days passes with no official information, Friday evening will repeat itself in Sremski Karlovci, with the same question and no answer, because the absence of a response has become the organisers’ main argument for calling people out again.