Novi Sad March Sets 7:45 PM Start, Two Accounts Collide

Novi Sad’s citizens’ assemblies have published a schedule for tonight’s gathering, considerably more precise than earlier announcements. The column at Banovina starts forming at 7 PM, departure is set for 7:45 PM, and the route runs down Strazilovska Street, through Maksima Gorkog Street and Bulevar oslobodjenja, to Novosadski Sajam Street.

The route was not picked at random. It is the same stretch of the city where, exactly a year ago, one of the fiercest episodes of the Novi Sad protests unfolded, first outside the offices of the Serbian Progressive Party on Strazilovska Street, then on Bulevar oslobodjenja. The difference lies in the starting point: last year the column set off from Studentski Grad, tonight it starts at Banovina.

That same morning, appearing on the Radio Television of Serbia’s (RTS) Jutarnji dnevnik, SNS president Milos Vucevic gave his own account of last August. So for the first time since the anniversary began being marked, two descriptions of the same events collided on the same day.

What Happened on August 13, 2025?

Thousands of citizens and students gathered that evening in Studentski Grad and marched toward the Serbian Progressive Party’s offices. The trigger was not the elections themselves or a parliamentary session, but earlier incidents in Vrbas and Backa Palanka, where protest participants had been pelted with pyrotechnics.

Tension flared the moment the column reached Strazilovska Street, where demonstrators faced off against party officials and supporters on the other side. Pyrotechnics were fired at the column from the direction of the party offices, demonstrators fired back, and police and gendarmerie tried to keep the two sides apart. A group of masked young men attacked the column from behind, from the direction of Strazilovska, beat several citizens and attacked journalists, then withdrew once the crowd began defending itself.

A second escalation followed on Bulevar oslobodjenja, at the rear entrance to the party’s offices, which police were not guarding. The party’s most senior officials were there too, along with their security detail, members of the military unit Kobre, who were protecting the party’s then president. Seven members of that unit were injured, and witnesses said shots were fired into the air as well.

The Court Proceedings, Still Ongoing

Criminal proceedings were opened against several citizens on suspicion of attacking military personnel. Those proceedings are precisely why the story did not end with August: some expert findings showed the injuries were not life threatening, and part of the evidence in one case was later thrown out as unlawful.

That night also produced a photograph that became one of the most recognizable images of the protests triggered by the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024, which killed 16 people. It shows a group of Kobre members sheltering behind school chairs in front of the party’s offices.

Vucevic’s Account of the August Week

On RTS, Vucevic did not speak only about Novi Sad. He tied three days into a single narrative: the attack on party members and supporters in Vrbas on August 12, which he described as street fighting that lasted until the early morning hours, then August 13 in Novi Sad, when, in his words, attackers hit the party’s offices at two locations and tried to trigger civil war, and finally August 14 in Valjevo, which he called the culmination and which he directly tied to the burning of the party’s offices.

Those days must not be forgotten. The people who carried out the violence are the ones marking them, imagine the disgrace, defending your honor by trying to burn and kill other people. Let everyone think it over and watch the footage.

Regarding the events themselves, he said he had witnessed them, stated that dozens had been injured, that an ambulance had been denied passage, and that part of the police had been passive. He added that, had it not been for the Kobre members, that night would have ended differently, and that he expects accountability through prosecution and court proceedings.

The Assemblies’ Message

Novi Sad’s citizens’ assemblies announced the anniversary on August 7, with a visual of a red hand and the message that the hands are bloody. In the post calling for the gathering, they included the line they chose as tonight’s motto.

We are not standing here because we have nowhere else to go. We are standing here because we know what we stand for.

In an earlier statement they summed up the entire year in a single claim: “Nothing in Novi Sad has been the same since August 13, 2025.” They added that some would like the day forgotten, while they intend to remember it as the day citizens and students defended the city’s honor.

Tonight’s gathering is one of several taking place this week to mark last year’s August events. The column at Banovina departs at 7:45 PM and ends on Novosadski Sajam Street, while the court proceedings opened after that night remain unresolved.