Herrnhut, 29 October 2025 – For 16 days (leading up to the anniversary of the disaster of 1 November 2024) people are walking towards Novi Sad from all the regions of Serbia, with massive support from the population. Participants from Novi Sad vividly described this resistance at the international conference of Church and Peace in Herrnhut, Germany, which took place from 24 to 26 October 2025. “In Serbia the greatest nonviolent protest in Europe has been taking place for a year now,” the Serbian women reported. “For that we need your support and your prayers.”
On 1 November 2024 the roof of the Novi Sad main station caved in, burying 16 people under it, including a five-year-old child. They were all killed. Promptly thousands of people went into the streets, blaming the government and charging it with corruption; meanwhile they are calling for political change. With the slogan “Corruption kills!” and 16 minutes silence, first students, then large parts of the population called for respect for the basic values of democracy. What counts for them is freedom and justice in the country, values on which the European Union is founded.
The government’s reaction so far has been harsh: hundreds of people who have taken part in the protests have been beaten up and detained. Professors and teachers who supported the protesters have had to take pay cuts. They are threatened with dismissal. Counter-demonstrators are organized and financed. Still the resistance is unbroken. The demands of the protesters include free, fair and transparent elections as the first step towards shaking off a corrupt power system. The population in Serbia is struggling for universal values that are essential for the promotion of just peace.
Church and Peace calls on European civil societies, churches and governments, to ensure that the demonstration on 1 November in Novi Sad remains peaceful and nonviolent, and to support the population on the way towards a just future.
Church and Peace calls on European political leaders to consistently implement the Resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 22 October “On the polarisation and increasing repression in Serbia, one year after the Novi Sad tragedy”, and to do their utmost to strengthen the path towards justice and freedom in Serbia.
And Church and Peace issues the call to pray for the people in Serbia.
Press contact
Anja Vollendorf, Board Chair, Church and Peace, +49 170 3568204