Vucic to Visit Nis Saturday, Students Rally at Red Rooster

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed today that he will travel to Nis on Saturday, September 5, where the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has scheduled a session of its Main Board. Following that announcement, students in blockade at the University of Nis called on citizens to gather at 10:30 at the intersection by Red Rooster, half an hour before SNS opens its session at the National Theater.

Vucic made the statement to reporters in Subotica.

“Of course I’m going to Nis. We have our Main Board there, and I’ll be there,” the president said.

He added that he does not care what his political opponents say and that “they’re free to attack me.” He also addressed the police, asking them not to interfere with the government’s opponents who gather.

“I’m asking the police to let them be, just so I can see exactly what they’ll do. But don’t call the police afterwards,” Vucic said.

The president added that this, to him, is proof that his opponents “have no politics,” comparing them to “Pol Pot’s youth,” which he claims is led by non-governmental organizations acting on orders “from abroad.”

What the students are saying

The call to gather was posted on Instagram ahead of the president’s announced arrival and carries the message that SNS is not welcome in Nis. Students asked citizens to bring whistles, vuvuzelas, Serbian flags and banners.

“Let them hear us and let them see us! Nis is not their party’s estate, Nis is an imperial city!” the students said in the post.

The call also spelled out why they are insisting on the gathering.

“We are coming to express our stance and opinion and to send them a strong message that students are winning,” the post reads.

This is the second protest greeting organized for the president in Nis; students held the first one in May 2025. The outlet Juzne Vesti reports that police in Nis have been summoning some students for so-called informative talks over the planned gathering, a day before the event itself.

Novi Sad rally postponed the same day

Vucic announced the Nis trip on the same day he postponed the SNS rally in Novi Sad, which had been scheduled for September 4. According to the outlet Istinomer, the president has announced the Novi Sad rally seven times over the past year and a half before postponing it again.

The last rally where SNS actually gathered supporters was held in Uzice on August 29, when police pushed citizens back from the rally site. That day was also marked by several incidents involving journalists: a cameraman for Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) was hit by a rock, a TV Pink crew was attacked, and police confiscated the phone of Masina reporter Marko Miletic while he was filming the pushback of citizens. An SNS lawmaker verbally targeted a TV Nova correspondent over the incident, calling her a “conductor of violence.”

The context ahead of elections

October 25 has been mentioned in the corridors as a possible election date, though there has been no official confirmation. In the meantime, the government, the opposition and the students are all running parallel campaigns, so the Main Board session in Nis comes at a moment of heightened tension between the authorities and the student movement, while SNS rallies in recent weeks have been systematically postponed or marked by incidents.

Whether Saturday’s visit to Nis will pass without a repeat of the scenes from Uzice will depend mostly on how police on the ground treat the gathered students, since the president himself has said he wants them let alone to do “whatever they want.”