Belgrade and Novi Sad Mark 22 Months Since Canopy Collapse

Students in blockade and the Novi Sad Assembly Network are calling for commemorative marches tonight, Tuesday, September 1, in Belgrade and Novi Sad, marking 22 months since the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed and killed 16 people. In Belgrade, people are asked to gather at 7 PM on Savski Trg, in Novi Sad at 7:45 PM at the intersection by the NIS building. Marches have also been announced in Nis.

Students in blockade published their call for the Belgrade gathering on August 30, while the Novi Sad Assembly Network’s call went out five days earlier, on August 25. Both calls point back to the same date, November 1, 2024, when the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed at 11:52 AM and killed 16 people. That hour has since been used, on the first of every month, to honor the victims.

What the marches in the two cities will look like

In Belgrade, students will address the crowd gathered on Savski Trg before the column sets off along Kneza Milosa Street toward the new Belgrade Centre railway station in Prokop. The march is set to end with 16 minutes of silence, one minute for each of the 16 victims.

“Every step we take together on Tuesday will echo across this country,” students in blockade said in their call to gather.

In Novi Sad, the route is shorter: from the intersection by NIS to the railway station. The Assembly Network’s call does not mention minutes of silence the way Belgrade’s does, but it carries the same message, that remembrance of the victims will not stop.

“Join us on September 1 at 7:45 PM at the intersection by NIS for a commemorative march to the railway station,” they announced on social media.

Why students insist on not letting it be forgotten

In the post announcing the Belgrade march, students in blockade wrote that they are taking to the streets until those responsible for the tragedy are held accountable.

“We are taking to the streets so that the guilty see that they will answer for this. We are taking to the streets to show that we are ready to keep fighting for truth, accountability and justice,” their social media post reads.

Organizers in Novi Sad say that even after 22 months, no one has been held responsible for the deaths, and that this is exactly why they keep gathering. Students in blockade strike a similar note, saying in their call for Belgrade that the silence of institutions, which has now lasted for months, must not become a reason to give up on their demands.

The post in which students called for the Belgrade march ends with a list of the names of all 16 victims, along with their years of birth. Among them are two young girls, Sara Firic, born in 2018, and Valentina Firic, born in 2014.

The day after a door-to-door campaign

Tonight’s marches come a day after students wrapped up a nationwide door-to-door campaign across Serbia. The call for tonight’s commemoration continues a string of activities through which students in blockade have kept the Novi Sad tragedy in public view, this time in the form of gatherings in two cities on the same date, at the same hour, in the evening.

Neither call, not the students’ nor the Assembly Network’s, announces the presence of any government or institutional representatives at the marches themselves. Organizers in both cities are addressing citizens, not officials, and are asking people to turn out in as large a number as possible.

It is not yet known how many people will take to the streets of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis tonight. Organizers in Novi Sad mark the hour of the canopy’s collapse, 11:52 AM, on the first of every month, and the message behind both calls points in the same direction: until responsibility for the tragedy is established, the memory of the 16 victims will not be allowed to fade.