I was born there and I am there every year or so. Most of the information I read here are half-truths or outright false.
In short, a glass roof on a newly built train station collapsed and massacred and killed a bunch of people, many of them young. Yes, the Chinese built it, but according to Serbian specs. Since Serbia is a massively corrupt mafia state, no one was held responsible, so some students held a minor, short and very peaceful protests. Vucic’s regime responded by sending masked goons to beat the crap out of them and some of them ended up in hospital. No one was held responsible for that either.
Now, it’s hard to overstate just how corrupt Serbia under Vucic is and corruption’s role in disintegrating civili society. If you want to have a glimpse of how genuinely horrific the situation in Serbia is, take a look at this video, but a huge CW for the faint of heart, because people are getting turned into minced meat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZHctPA22c
So, basically those Vucic’s goons just beating the crap out of peaceful protestors was just the last straw and other students joined with them. Soon many professors joined in as well, since Vucic was beating up their students and they felt morally obliged to rise up as well.
So as the protests picked up, students went to great lengths to distance themselves from any political party or politician. IMO a wrong move. Basically all they want is not to live in a jungle, but in a place where laws are actually observed and applied, but their demands seems vague and (I think) they don’t have a clear goal in mind. They even stated they aren’t aiming for “regime change” (also a mistake IMO).
Meanwhile, Vucic has been regularly breaking a bunch of laws of his own country, and gloating about it too. He seems to be a sociopath and if you think Trump is bad, Vucic is far worse. The sh1t he pulled can’t fit in a book, much less forum post. That includes openly cheating on elections in (at least) Belgrade.
“The economy” is doing ok, but public services are all crumbling and you basically need to pay for everything out of your pocket. It’s a true “crony capitalism”.
He managed to create some kind of a client state, where he gives privileged government jobs and contracts to a bunch of people, which are then expected to bring themselves and their families to the voting booth. The rest are discouraged to vOtE and lost faith in democratic process a long time ago, so they keep winning. The same template I see in neighboring Croatia.
Anyway I have to stop there, but feel free to send more questions my way.
Just to add to it, all these professors and teachers that joined in on protests, were withheld their salaries for more than 6 months, which is blatantly against the law. Vucic decided to win by “starving” them out, but now he is losing patience and escalating police violence agains them.