On November 1, the roof of a railway station collapsed in the Serbian city Novi Sad, which led to the death of fifteen people and severely injured two. Strikingly, this railway station had only come out of renovation four months before the collapse, suggesting that this might not just be a tragic accident, but primarily a failure of the authorities responsible.
The collapse was followed by a complete lack of responsibility from those in power. The minister of construction, transport, and infrastructure, Goran Vesić, although he did resign on November 4, declared: “I cannot accept the blame for the death of 14 people because neither I nor the people who work with me have an iota of responsibility for the tragedy that happened.”
Statements like this and the overall lack of response by the authorities resulted in weeks of protests in Novi Sad. Protestors used the slogan that “corruption kills” and demanded from those in charge to take more responsibility. The severe crackdowns on these protests and the imprisonment of many protestors, however, immediately showed the truth of this statement.
During the Annual Meeting of the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, the participants took a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of this disaster and to stand in solidarity with the protestors who are rightfully calling for responsibility from the authorities. The Annual Meeting is a place where progressives from all over Europe come together to discuss the main political issues at hand.
On the picture you can see representatives of progressive political organizations from The Netherlands, Armenia, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Georgia, The United Kingdom, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Moldova, Belarus, Finland, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, France, and Slovenia
Written by Guido Boven