Vrbas protest tonight marks one year since August 12
A gathering is planned for 8 PM at Gradski trg, one year after a night in which at least 70 people were injured at the same spot. Voice of Vrbas Students and citizens' assemblies are calling for it.
A protest in Vrbas is set for 8 PM tonight at Gradski trg, exactly one year after two groups faced each other on the same spot: gathered residents and students on one side, supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on the other. The call came from the informal initiative Voice of Vrbas Students and the city’s citizens’ assemblies.
The date, time and place were chosen deliberately. “Same place, same time, one year later. We have not forgiven you for August 12. Vrbas,” the student initiative wrote in its call to gather.
Vrbas’s citizens’ assemblies joined the call with a statement of their own, describing last year’s night as one of the worst incidents in the city’s recent history and arguing that the authorities still have not responded properly, even a year on.
“We have not forgotten August 12, 2025 either, we do not forget what was done, and we say that a time of accountability will come for that event and for the rest of the Cartel’s misdeeds,” the citizens’ assemblies of Vrbas said in their statement.
That last word was not chosen by accident. “Cartel” is the term opposition and student groups have used for the authorities in recent months, and its use in tonight’s call signals that the gathering is meant as more than a commemoration. It is also a political statement.
What happened in Vrbas last August 12?
Last year’s protest in Vrbas began in the evening, as a reaction from locals to the organized busing in of Serbian Progressive Party activists from other towns. Around 9:30 PM, the situation spiraled out of control.
According to the organizers of tonight’s gathering, residents and students were pelted for nearly two hours with fireworks, rocks, bottles and other objects thrown by SNS supporters. The clash ended only when an intervention unit and the gendarmerie arrived. At least 70 people were injured that night, according to reporters who were on the scene.
The Interior Ministry (MUP) gave the opposite account at the time, saying residents had attacked and pelted the SNS supporters. A year later, the two versions still stand unresolved, with no completed proceedings to confirm either one.
The first gathering on the actual date
Over the past year, Vrbas residents have held monthly gatherings tied to the same date, always on the twelfth of the month. Tonight’s gathering is the first to fall on the anniversary itself, and organizers expect a bigger turnout than at previous ones.
Vrbas has already been a stop on the political calendar this year. We reported in the spring on the continuation of the “Serbia or Mafia?” campaign in the city, but tonight’s occasion is different: rather than a campaign announcement, the square will mark a date that organizers say has never received an institutional resolution.
The August pattern reaches beyond Vrbas
Last year’s string of August incidents spanned several cities over four days:
- Backa Palanka, August 11 and 12, 2025
- Vrbas, August 12, 2025
- Novi Sad, August 13, 2025
- Valjevo, August 14, 2025
That sequence raised a question institutions still have not answered: who is responsible for the violence on the streets of four cities within a single week. The anniversaries of the other dates fall over the next two days, so tonight’s turnout in Vrbas will also be read as a benchmark for the gatherings that follow.
Organizers have not announced any speakers or program for the gathering itself, only the place and time. It remains an open question whether supporters of the ruling party will also show up at Gradski trg tonight, and how police will position their forces at a site where, participants say, there was no response for two hours a year ago.
