Serbian student protesters head to Strasbourg on bicycles to seek EU support

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NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Serbian university students who say their fight for justice and the rule of law is being overlooked are cycling 1,300 kilometers (780 miles) toward the heart of the European Union to seek support.

Around 80 students set off on bicycles Thursday on a days-long journey to Strasbourg, France, where the European Parliament meets, aiming to draw EU attention to their months-long protests against corruption in the Balkan nation, which is seeking membership in the 27-nation bloc.

University students have been a key force behind a nationwide anti-graft movement that includes almost daily street demonstrations that have rattled the Balkan nation’s President Aleksandar Vucic. While they have garnered huge support at home, many students feel they haven’t received enough support from the EU.

The cycles took off in a light, chilly rain to a noisy farewell from Novi Sad, a northern Serbian city some 90 kilometers from the capital Belgrade.

“Yes, it will be tough and we will have a hard time but I think it will be worth it,” said Ivan Poturica, a mathematics student from Novi Sad. “We expect someone to finally react to the situation in Serbia.”

The students will cycle about 100-150 kilometers (60-90 miles) per day, through Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany before reaching France. Along the way, they plan to stay with the Serbs living abroad and fellow-students from the EU.

The journey will show “the students’ persistence and determination” and “make our voice heard throughout the world,” they said.

The student-led protests in Serbia were triggered by the deaths of 16 people in a deadly train station canopy collapse November, widely blamed on rampant corruption, but they have since come to reflect wider discontent with Vucic’s populist rule in Serbia.

Since coming to power over a decade ago, Vucic has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms while maintaining close links with Russia and China.

Protesting students have been demanding justice for the victims of the Nov. 1 canopy collapse and an end to government pressure and violence against protesters.

Those are the values the EU stands for, students say.

“I think our ideas and demands that we are taking to Strasbourg are realistic,” said medical student Bogan Jelaca. “This is why I had to join.”

Vucic and pro-government media have accused the students and their professors of working against the state, and student protesters have been attacked on numerous occasions.

The EU’s reaction to the protests has been lukewarm, and officials have refrained from criticizing Vucic. “We call on all the stakeholders to refrain from escalating further,” the EU commission’s spokesman for enlargement issues, Guillaume Mercier, told reporters last week.

Serbia “needs to deliver on EU reforms, in particular to take decisive steps towards media freedom, the fight against corruption and the electoral reform,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on X after a recent meeting with Vucic. “Serbia’s future lies in the EU.”

Once in Strasbourg, the students plan to visit the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

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AP writer Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.