Novi Sad: Emotional welcome for students returning from Strasbourg

The welcome on Friday evening at the University campus in Novi Sad occurred spontaneously, as the ceremonial ceremony for the group of 80 cyclists who met in Strasbourg with representatives of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament was scheduled for Tuesday, April 22, so as not to coincide with the Easter holidays.

Andrea Aleksic, a student at the Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade, Pavle Milinovic, a student at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, as well as Slobodan Knezevic, who also followed them on a bicycle through Europe, shared their first impressions from the road speaking to N1 a day upon their arrival.

They said that they were not even aware of how much this ride meant to people, and they also shared their impressions of the meeting with European officials.

"For the first time, I felt seen by someone who held a position, who wanted to talk to us, without belittling us or belittling our feelings. They let us talk, we said our wishes and expectations," said Aleksic.

Milinovic added that representatives of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament came to listen to Serbian students, not their students. "I think we have achieved something, but the task is not finished, not solved, not completed," she said.

In Strasbourg, the students handed over letters to the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, in which they warned of the socio-political crisis in Serbia.