Students in Belgrade join Serbia's post-election cleanup wave

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia 's capital Belgrade has been getting a makeover after a youth-led movement 's victory over a long-ruling strongman and his government in Oct. 25 elections.

Activists and residents in various parts of the city — and elsewhere in the Balkan country — have self-organized to paint over anti-student graffiti that were scribbled on buildings during the tense campaign ahead of the ballot.

The daily painting effort started almost immediately after the Students’ List movement toppled former President Aleksandar Vucic ’s right-wing Serbian Progressive Party. It was seen as a reflection of a sense of solidarity that swept the country following 14 years of Vucic's authoritarian rule.

On Friday, students from three high schools in central Belgrade decided to do their part. Dozens took up paint rollers and brushes before dispersing through the neighborhoods around their schools.

“We had this desire to make not only our country better, but also the city we live in,” said Lea Radic, a student at Belgrade's Third High School. “People wanted to do something immediately, not in 10 days, not in a month, but on the very first day.”

Radic, 18, who heads the student assembly in her school, said their action was coordinated with students from two other schools located several blocks away, who came out at the same time.

“We all determined our zones,” she explained. The idea, Radic added, "is to do good deeds and make our surroundings nicer."

The student-led movement defeated Vucic at the ballot after leading two years of protests against alleged government corruption over a train station tragedy that killed 16 people in northern Serbia in November 2024.

Vucic, his pro-government media and officials have branded students as traitors and foreign mercenaries. Scores were detained and beaten by police and pro-government supporters during protests.

After Vucic's defeat, residents first cleared up a central park in Belgrade that was taken up by Vucic's loyalists for over a year. Then volunteers painted an underground passage that was completely covered in anti-student graffiti. Other parts of Belgrade followed as other cities and towns organized similar actions of their own.

“Our aim and motive has been to paint over the hate speech,” said 17-year-old high school student Kosta Jovanovic. “We believe that our younger students, as they go to school every day, are exposed to a lot of murals, slogans and sentences that are insulting and that are not good for them.”

Residents were delighted to see the students in action.

“I am completely euphoric,” said Leta Lalevic, who is in her 60s. “This is so beautiful that it makes me want to cry."