Families of victims of the Kočani fire at the protest named “March for the Angels” in Skopje on April 29, 2025. The banner reads “Selective responsibility equals irresponsibility.” Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC.

This article by Despina Kovačevska was first published by Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) on June 12, 2025. An edited version is being republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement with Innovative Media.

Two recent tragedies – one in North Macedonia and one in Serbia – have sparked waves of student-led protests in the respective capitals of Skopje and Belgrade as well as other cities, drawing attention to deep-seated political and institutional failures in both countries.

In March, a horrific fire tore through a makeshift nightclub called Pulse in Kočani, North Macedonia, killing 62 people and injuring hundreds more. A few months prior, in November 2024, the collapse of a poorly reconstructed canopy at Serbia's Novi Sad Train Station left 16 dead, shocking the nation.

The two events have emerged as symbols of long-standing dysfunction within public systems and governance, marked by regulatory negligence, lack of accountability, and political apathy. In response, young people took to the streets – not only to mourn the victims, but to demand real change, transparency, and institutional responsibility.

A generation demanding dignity

In both North Macedonia and Serbia, the protests following these tragedies were not just outpourings of grief; they were acts of resistance. Their demands were simple yet profound: safety in public spaces, dignity in governance, and justice for lives that should not have been lost.

“We’re not dying in accidents — we’re dying from corruption” banner at the protest named “March for the Angels” in Skopje on April 29, 2025. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC.

In a region where youth are often dismissed as apathetic or politically disengaged, these protests offered a striking counter-narrative: a generation that refuses to stay silent in the face of systemic failure.

When demands for justice turn into a “threat to the state”

In a tactic that attempts to undermine public engagement and delegitimize both the opposition and any grassroots efforts that are not party-political, authorities in both countries have tried to discredit the protests by calling them “politically motivated.”

In North Macedonia, the web portal of the TV station Alfa.mk published an opinion piece criticizing the protests, which quoted journalist Branko Geroski as saying “the calls were not articulated” and the protests were “attempts to create chaos and undermine institutional stability”. Arguing that the students’ actions were politically driven, he added, “They were not sincere calls for accountability, but a political agenda to destabilize the country.”

There was a similar reaction in Serbia, where the tabloid Alo.rs ran the headline: “Students admit protests are political.” However, apart from a vague statement from one student, most commentary came from professors who repeated government positions, reflecting tactics used by authoritarian regimes across the region.

“They wanted change, but mostly they joined something that someone else had conceived and designed,” Dragana Mitrović, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, told Alo.rs. While the majority of Serbian university professors have been supportive of the students, Mitrović has been criticizing them from the outset, through her numerous appearances in pro-government media.

Mickoski and Vučić have similar reactions

Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić offered nearly identical narratives in response to the student protests. While Mickoski acknowledged public frustration, he also cast the protests as being politically motivated:

Ги разбирам сите оние кои одлучиле својот легитимен гнев да го изразат преку протести, но не можам да ги оправдам политичките глодари и лешинари коишто не сакаат силна влада од ВМРО-ДПМНЕ бидејќи е браник и последниот столб да не дозволи уништување на Македонија.

I understand those who decided to express their legitimate anger through protests, but I cannot justify the political rodents and vultures who do not want a strong government run by VMRO-DPMNE, because it is the bulwark and the last pillar that will not allow the destruction of Macedonia.

Yet, when families of the victims initiated protests and donation drives, they too were labeled as “political.” The VMRO-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, which Mickoski heads, is the country's incumbent political party.

In Serbia, Vučić insisted that all student demands had already been addressed, and dismissed the ongoing protests: “We will tolerate this up to a certain point, and then we will behave in accordance with the rules that the state must respect.”

Biljana Georgievska, the executive director of the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia, criticized the authorities’ post-tragedy communication strategies, suggesting that government responses focused too heavily on numbers, arrests, and procedural updates, neglecting deeper accountability. In an interview, she told Innovative Media (IM):

This issue will probably disappear from the media and public discourse, pushed aside by PR tactics that distract attention and inflame passions with nationalism or sensationalism. However, no matter how skilled the party PR tools are at ‘sweeping things under the carpet’, the collective memory of the tragedy and the anger over the abuse of power by officials responsible for public safety will not disappear.

Disempowering youth voices

While politicians dominated headlines, the voices of young people were often sidelined. In Serbia, the Instagram page Detektor Smeća (Garbage Detector) – which claims to expose extremists – has been publishing the names and photos of protesting students, painting them as threats to national security.

Professor Sead Džigal, who teaches ethics in communication at a university in Skopje, told IM that such intimidation tactics create a climate of fear:

Some may refrain from expressing criticism or dissent altogether. This type of pressure aims to demotivate protests and activism, discouraging further participation in demonstrations or self-organization. As a result, some students may distance themselves from the movement to protect their personal reputation, which can ultimately weaken [its] cohesion.

In North Macedonia, the student-run Instagram page Studentarija, a colloquial term meaning “student body,” was targeted by a smear campaign for posting videos from a rally at which the education minister was present.

Despite not being affiliated with political party activity, one student was also targeted for participating in the protest, after pro-government media made it known that his father was the former prime minister when the current opposition party was in power. “Students from families with known oppositional backgrounds can be labeled as political enemies regardless of their personal views or opinions,” explained Džigal. “This encourages broader polarization, where students are drawn into an ‘us versus them’ dynamic based on family ties, rather than individual qualities and positions.”

This intimidation of critical voices has caused widespread self-censorship, and abstinence from participation in the protests demanding accountability in the Kočani tragedy.

Asking the young people

“Where do we pull strings to bring our friends back?” banner at the protest named “March for the Angels” in Skopje on April 29, 2025. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC.

Media expert Ilir Gashi explained to IM that, prior to these protests, young people in Serbia had been largely invisible in the media, leading many to wrongly assume they were disengaged:

Many believed that young people were apolitical – that they knew nothing, didn’t care, didn’t follow the news, and just stared at their phones. However, it turned out that young people know, follow, and think. Their understanding of politics and political engagement is far ahead of what has been mainstream in Serbia so far. The real problem was a generational misunderstanding: young people simply did not behave the way older generations expected, which led to assumptions that they were passive, uninterested and lacking a sense of community and politics.

Angela Petkova, a journalist from North Macedonia, noted a lack of public empathy in her country toward the grieving families and students seeking justice, and expressed to IM her disappointment in the fact that students have not yet shown the same level of unity or visibility as their Serbian peers:

Corruption in Serbia has killed 16 people, including a Macedonian citizen from Sveti Nikole. Since then, students have been on the streets every day, blocking universities and bringing the country to a standstill because they understand that otherwise, it will continue to kill. Corruption in Macedonia has killed 62 young, unspoiled lives. Yet, the students have continued with their daily routines, ignoring the reality that we are all living in a shed waiting to be set on fire.

Remaining hopeful that her generation will not forget the Kočani tragedy, Petkova told IM she dreams of a day when the streets will be full [of protests], until the country's institutions are emptied and rebuilt – from the ground up – with honest and capable people.

These tragedies in Kočani and Novi Sad have laid bare the ongoing tension between citizens and institutions in the Western Balkans. As students continue to take to the streets to mourn and demand change, they risk their voices being dismissed, politicized, or silenced. Yet, their clarity and courage suggest that they are not easily deterred, and that their collective memory of injustice may well outlast the news cycle.