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On 1 November, the roof of a train station in the Serbian city of Novi Sad collapsed, killing 15 people and seriously injuring two. Remarkably, this train station had only been renovated four months before the collapse. It suggests that this was not only a tragic accident, but also a failure of the responsible authorities.
The collapse was followed by a complete lack of accountability by the Serbian government. Although the minister of construction, transport and infrastructure, Goran Vesić, resigned on 4 November, but stated: "I cannot take the blame for the deaths of 14 people, because neither I nor the people working with me bear the slightest responsibility for the tragedy that occurred."
Statements like this and the overall lack of response from the authorities led to weeks of protests in Novi Sad. Demonstrators used the slogan that "corruption kills" and demanded more responsibility from the Serbian government. However, the crackdown on these protests and the detention of many protesters immediately demonstrated the truth of this claim.
At the annual meeting of the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, in which FMS participated, participants took a moment of silence to remember the victims of this disaster and to stand in solidarity with the protesters who rightly demand responsibility from the authorities. The rest of the annual meeting in Brussels focused on collaborations between social democratic political foundations and parties in 2025, in the face of many challenges of social inequality and geopolitical insecurity. A wide range of projects and activities will again be organised by foundations present in 2025 to work towards a social, secure and sustainable Europe.
Pictured are representatives of social democratic & progressive political organisations from the Netherlands, Armenia, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Georgia, UK, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Moldova, Belarus, Finland, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, France and Slovenia
