The Perceptual Discourse of Voters in Serbia on Student Protests and Their Political Engagement

Abstract

Student protests in Serbia have been ongoing since December 2024 and arose from demands to find those responsible for the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station. These protests have grown into one of the most massive gatherings in the modern history of Serbia, which has allowed their popularity to grow within the public opinion. This can be consider- ed one of the reasons why students have come out with a political demand to call early parliamentary elections and the intention to nominate a Student List in these elections, which should consist of university professors and other public figures who have gained a public image in recent years of fighting against the current government in Serbia. These facts prompted us to conduct 10 focus groups in order to determine the perception that the Student Movement has among voters in Serbia. When creating the research, care was taken to ensure that the focus group participants were individuals belonging to different gender, age and educational structures. Each focus group was attended by 10 respondents, and the focus groups were organized in different cities in Serbia: two each in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš, and one each in Subotica, Kragujevac, Užice and Požarevac. The central research question that was asked of the respondents was which discourse can be considered dominant in voters’ perception of student political activity. The focus group participants most often described it as “brave”, believing that students managed to restore “hope” and “future” through their political engagement, and they particularly emphasized the “unity” present in student protests.