Serbian cabbies rally to bring home Belgrade students fighting against corruption

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — After a 2-day walk and a night out in the open, protesting Belgrade university students in Serbia on Sunday got a taxi ride home — free of charge.

Hundreds of cabbies organized to pick up students from the northern city of Novi Sad after a daylong blockade of bridges that is part of a widening anti-corruption movement gripping the Balkan nation.

“This was all spontaneous, about 20 or 30 of us launched this,” said Sava Jovanovic, one of the organizers of the action that illustrates a tide of sympathy and solidarity with the students.

“They are our children, our students, we are going to bring them home, said Jovanovic.

University students are leading the anti-graft demonstrations in Serbia which erupted after a concrete canopy crashed at the central train station in Novi Sad on Nov. 1, killing 15 people and severely injuring two others.

The protests have drawn huge crowds into the streets demanding justice over the Novi Sad tragedy, which critics blame on sloppy renovation work fueled by government corruption.

Response among the taxi drivers was “exceptional,” said cabbie Nikola Bogdanovic. Some 500 drivers, some from central Serbia, joined in, he said.

Honking their car horns and waving Serbian flags, the taxi drivers headed from Belgrade to Novi Sad jointly in a huge column while greeted by passers by and other drivers. The cars were marked ‘student taxis.’

Upon arrival in Novi Sad, the taxis received a cheering welcome, passing under a huge banner reading: “Students will free the world.”

Radoje Tosovic, a taxi driver from Belgrade, said “I have grandchildren, my motive is a struggle for their better future.” Students, added Tosovic, are “what is the best in our society” and everyone should stand by them.

The students’ demands for the rule of law and accountability, their empathy for the victims, along with resilience and readiness for sacrifice to achieve justice has struck a chord in a disillusioned nation used to decades of perpetual crisis.

Wherever students held blockades, or while they walked through the Serbian countryside from Belgrade to Novi Sad earlier this week, people came out offering food and refreshments. Many cried.

Dejan Jovic, a Belgrade taxi driver, said “our kids are in the streets, my daughter is among them.”

“They walked for 80 kilometers (50 miles), we are going to bring them home,” said Jovic. “Something very nice has been rekindled again, something we haven’t seen in a long time.”