24-08-2025: Over three nights in August, violent clashes broke out in Serbia between anti-government protestors and supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The worst incident took place in Novi Sad, where President Aleksandar Vučić said 64 people were injured when rioters attacked the party offices of the SNS, while supporters attempted to defend them. The anti-government students approached with sticks and smashed the building’s windows.[1] The demonstrators chanted “he is finished” as they hurled furniture into the street, and thew flares and other objects at pro-government defenders, who promptly threw them back. Similar scenes occurred in the capital Belgrade and the towns of Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Nis and Cacak. The Serbian government stated that the past few days marked the largest uptick in violence against police, with 121 officers injured and 114 people arrested.[2]

Nine months of unrest

Anti-government protests began last November after a concrete canopy at a newly renovated railway station collapsed, killing 16 people. The “student” led movement claims the government has not adequately prosecuted those responsible and is engaged in a cover up. The students have reportedly raised four main demands: (i) the publication of the documents of the case of the November disaster (ii) the punishment of the attackers of the students and professors during the protests (iii) the permanent suspension of the trials of students and professors arrested during the demonstrations and (iv) a 20% increase in public spending on education.[3] The game is given away, however, when the additional student demand of an early parliamentary election[4] is raised – which the government has refused. In response to the latest round of violence allegedly in support of these demands, President Vučić told a TV station that “the state will win”, while accusing the protestors of inciting violence and of being “enemies of their own country”.[5]

EU (European Union) Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, posted comments on social media platform X that the reports of violence are “concerning” and that Serbian advancement to the EU requires a situation where citizens can express their views freely and journalists can report without intimidation or attacks.[6] The Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) released a statement condemning the Serbian police for siding with the pro-government activists, showing where its loyalties lie. The BCSDN, however, is backed by the Council of Europe, a string of European backed NGOs (“Non” Government Organisations) and the Carnegie Endowment for “International Peace”.[7] With backing like this, and with demands for an early election, the power play reveals itself.

Orchestrated violence aimed at Russia

Serbia is being subjected to a reactionary and extremely violent colour revolution ultimately facilitated by US (United States of America) and EU imperialism. The target, as ever, is Serbia’s ally the Russian Federation. Serbia has refused to apply sanctions on Russia, which is defending itself against NATO’s Nazified proxy war via Ukraine. Given Serbia’s close relations with Russia on the basis of ethnicity, history, religion and geopolitics, no Serbian government could levy sanctions on Russia and hope to remain in power. That is, unless imperialism is successful in overthrowing the Serbian government and putting in place pro-Western youths plied by decades of funding from duplicitous foreign funded NGOs. Serbia was subjected to arguably the first colour revolution in 2000, when then President Milosevic was overthrown less than a year after NATO bombed Serbia in 1999. The notorious US Congress funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was up to its neck in the overthrow of Serbia at the time, via a network of misnamed “civil society” organisations.

The overthrow of Milosevic over two decades ago, however, did not result in a sufficiently pro-Western state. So Washington plays the colour revolution card once again on a playback loop. This is despite Serbia, especially under President Vučić, attempting to build close relations with both the West and the East, and, if anything, tilting more towards the West. Serbia has been an EU candidate since 2012, but its ties with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) also continually develop in a “multi-vector diplomatic course”.[8] This, plus the Serbian government’s refusal to recognise an “independent” Kosovo, is too much for US ruling class. The Empire is brazen, demanding Belgrade recognise the “independence” of Kosovo while maintaining the expansive Camp Bondsteel and 7000 US troops as part of NATO KFOR (Kosovo Force) within Kosovo.[9] Serbia cannot allow Kosovo to be broken away, given the fact that it is already in practice a NATO base as a legacy of imperialism’s 1999 three-month war.

The military pressure from NATO’s KFOR is one pressure point on Belgrade, the other is a plethora of NGOs continually working within Serbian society, targeting the youth and, above all, students. Billionaire anti-socialist regime change specialist George Soros has been operating his Open Society Foundation (OSF) in Serbia since 1991, and it was even named the Soros Foundation Yugoslavia until 1996.[10] The OSF works hand in glove with the NED (despite the show of the current US Trump Administration’s funding cuts) to corrode and undermine Serbian youth, to turn them against their culture, their history and even their families. Once captured with the fake mantras of “democracy”, “human rights”, “civil society” and “good governance”, young Serbs can be animated and thrown into battle against their own, up to and including making open attempts to overthrow the state.

Capitalist imperialism is being surpassed by history, and world power is shifting from the West to the East. A new multipolar world is coming into being, with the rise the Global South led BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa plus 15 other states) bloc being but one expression. It is in the interests of working people to defend Serbia and its non-Western allies against internal and external subversion. Real and actual “democracy” and “human rights” can only be attained under socialism, with public ownership of the means of production and a planned economy. Marxist vanguard (i.e. Trotskyist) parties need to be formed throughout the Balkans and Eurasia, to link up internationally with advanced workers seeking to lift the formerly oppressed class to political power.

Workers League
www.redfireonline.com
E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.rt.com/news/622879-violence-erupts-serbia-protests/ (20-08-2025)

[2] www.politico.eu/article/serbia-protests-aleksandar-vucic/ (20-08-2025)

[3] www.theowp.org/reports/voices-of-change-in-serbias-fight-for-democracy-and-justice/ (20-08-2025)

[4] www.apnews.com/article/serbia-protest-clashes-students-vucic-dacic- (20-08-2025)

[5] www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/14/serbian-antigovernment-protests-escalate-in-third-night-of-clashes (20-08-2025)

[6] www.serbiantimes.info/en/marta-kos-condemns-attacks-on-citizens-and-journalists-reports-of-violence-during-recent-protests-in-serbia-are-deeply-worrying/ (20-08-2025)

[7] www.balkancsd.net/partners-and-donors/ (20-08-2025)

[8] www.trendsresearch.org/insight/serbias-slight-and-gradual-move-toward-the-west/ (20-08-2025)

[9] www.trull.org/~alex/pubmirror/saker-archive-home-use/camp-bondsteel-the-empires-base-in-independent-kosovo/index.html (20-08-2025)

[10] www.devex.com/organizations/open-society-foundation-serbia-143764 (20-08-2025)

Image: Police cordon in front of the SNS offices in Belgrade, on August 14 2025. http://www.balkaninsight.com