International media reported on the protests in Serbia, taking place on the country's Statehood Day, with "Serbia's striking students and supporters of populist President Aleksandar Vucic" holding two parallel rallies, with "notably contrasting messages."

Associated Press reported that students chose Kragujevac for Saturday’s rally because of its history; it is the place whose people announced in the 19th century a new constitution that sought to limit the powers of the then-rulers. On the other hand, President Vucic chose Sremska Mitrovica.

The media outlet recalled that the rally in the central industrial city of Kragujevac drew tens of thousands of people who ask for the justice over the November accident in the northern city of Novi Sad, when a concrete canopy on a railway station collapsed and killed 15 people.

Some of the students arrived in the city on foot.

„The canopy disaster, widely believed to have happened due to government corruption, has become a flashpoint for wider discontent with the authoritarian rule, with university students at the forefront of the anti-graft uprising. Their determination, youth and creativity have struck a cord among people widely disillusioned with politicians“, AP reported.

According to the media outlet, Vucic is expected to „recycle a traditional nationalist theme,“ at the rally in Sremska Mitrovica, warning that the West wants to unseat him by force and that this could lead to the breakup of the country.