Freedom and the Rule of Law

Rain fell steadily from a gray, oppressive sky as I joined the growing mass of people at the city’s edge. Flags and banners waved in the wind, and the sound of horns filled the air. We were six kilometers from the Republic Square where the protest would take place, and the crown was already immense. I had never seen so many people in one place before.

As we began our march throught the streets, I found myself sourrounded by a cross-section of Serbian society. Professors with rain-spotted glasses walked alongside farmers who have traveled from all corners of the country. Tech workers in rainproof jackets shared umbrellas with elderly pensioners who refused to let the weather deter them. Mothers pushed strollers, pushing through the crowd with determination. The atmosphere was electric, and I felt a sense of unity that I had never experienced before.

This marked the fourth month of protests since the collapse of at the railway station in my hometown where a 300-ton concrete slab had fallen killing 15 people. The government had tried to shift the blame to the construction company, the original architects, the previous political party, and even some of their lower-ranking officials. Every attempt to deflect responsibility had only fueled the public’s anger, and the protests had grown in size and intensity.

The students had been the first to take to the streets, demanding justice. They had been soon joined by workers, farmers, and professionals from all walks of life. The requests are simple: apply the rule of law, hold those responsible accountable, and ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. The government’s response had been to ignore the protests, to dismiss them as the work of a foreign conspiracy, and an attempt to destabilize the country.

We continued our march through the city, our numbers swelling with every step.

What struck me the most was the sense of unity. I stood shoulder to shoulder with people I would normally pass on the street without a second glance, some I would even avaid based on perceived differences. But here, on the streets of Belgrade, we were all united in our demand for justice. We were all citizens of the same country, and we all wanted the same thing: freedom and the rule of law.

As we reached the inner city streets, the numbers grew so large that the streets could no longer contain us. Almost a million people had gathered in the Republic Square and the sourrounding streets. That is almost 20% of the country’s population. An absolute sea of poeple, civilized and peaceful, yet determined and resolute.

The protests that erupted across Serbia represent something rare in models political discourse - a moment when citizens set aside their ideological differences to defend the system that allows those very differences to exists. This wasn’t about left versus right, young versus old, urban versus rural, or religious versus secular. It is about preserving the foundamental principles that underpin our society: the rule of law, accountability, and justice. Or in other words, demanding that the government be held to the same standards as the rest of us.

What makes these demonstrations particularly significant is their focus not on immidiate policy outcomes, but on the processes that legitimize the government itself. The protesters are not demanding a change in the law, but rather the enforcement of existing laws. They are not calling for a new government, but for the current one to respect the will of the people. This distiction elevates the demands from political to profoundly democratic.