High school students in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, have joined a growing civic cleanup movement, picking up paint rollers and brushes to remove hostile graffiti following the electoral defeat of former President Aleksandar Vucic. The student-led initiative comes after the Oct. 25 elections, which ended 14 years of authoritarian rule by Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party.
On Friday, dozens of teenagers from three central Belgrade high schools coordinated their efforts to cover up anti-student slogans painted across nearby neighborhoods during the tense political campaign. Students mapped out specific zones to clean, working simultaneously across several city blocks.
“We had this desire to make not only our country better, but also the city we live in,” said 18-year-old Lea Radic, who heads the student assembly at Belgrade’s Third High School. Radic explained that their action was coordinated with students from two other nearby schools. She noted that the desire to take action was immediate among residents after the election results were confirmed, saying people wanted to do something right away rather than waiting days or a month, with the simple goal of doing good deeds and making their surroundings nicer.
The nationwide makeover began after the Students’ List political movement defeated Vucic at the ballot box. That electoral victory followed two years of continuous demonstrations led by students, who protested against alleged government corruption in the wake of a November 2024 train station collapse in northern Serbia that resulted in 16 deaths.
Throughout that political struggle, Vucic, his administration, and pro-government media outlets repeatedly targeted student activists, branding them as foreign mercenaries and traitors. During the two years of protests, scores of student demonstrators were detained and physically beaten by police officers and pro-government supporters.
Following Vucic’s defeat, community members in Belgrade immediately began reclaiming public spaces as a reflection of solidarity. Residents first cleaned up a central city park that had been occupied by Vucic loyalists for more than a year. Volunteers subsequently repainted an underground pedestrian passage that was completely covered in anti-student graffiti. Similar cleanup actions quickly spread to other parts of Belgrade as well as towns and cities across the Balkan nation.
Youth activists highlighted the importance of creating a safer environment for younger pupils. “Our aim and motive has been to paint over the hate speech,” said 17-year-old high school student Kosta Jovanovic. He explained that younger students walking to school every day were continuously exposed to offensive murals, slogans, and sentences that were insulting and harmful to them.
Local residents expressed strong emotion and relief upon seeing the students restoring their neighborhoods. Leta Lalevic, a Belgrade resident in her 60s, described feeling completely euphoric at the sight of the young volunteers, adding that the scene was so beautiful it made her want to cry.
