The publication of a “Memorandum” by Serbia’s student movement, in which they state that Kosovo is “an integral part of Serbia”, has stirred controversy among members of the public who support the students’ announced entry into the political arena against the government.
While some citizens believe that such a position unites the majority of voters in Serbia, critics argue that students cannot defeat President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party through nationalist politics.
The students, who after the tragedy in Novi Sad gathered hundreds of thousands of people at protests across the country, accuse the authorities of corruption and demand accountability for the deaths of 16 people caused by the collapse of the railway station canopy in 2024. Previously, they had stated that, until their demands for snap elections – which have still not been called – were met, they would not comment on issues “that polarise the public”.
“The Memorandum shows that even the students are unable to avoid the trap of Serbia’s nationalist politics, which rests on the Kosovo myth,” Žarko Korać, a retired professor at the University of Belgrade, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The student movement has no formal leaders, and the Memorandum was published on social media platforms through which the students communicate with the public.
However, there has been no answer to questions regarding who authored the document or why they have now added a position on Kosovo to their demands. RFE/RL put these questions to the umbrella group “Students in Blockade” via Instagram and contacted several students who had announced that responses would be provided, but by the time of publication none had arrived.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić did respond, stating that the students in blockade “do not understand the situation in Kosovo”.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which is recognised neither by the Serbian government nor by most of the opposition in Serbia. Since 2013, Belgrade and Pristina have been negotiating the normalisation of relations under the mediation of the European Union.
What do the students say about Kosovo?
In the Memorandum, the students state that the “preservation of Kosovo and Metohija is the common denominator” of all their efforts, referring to the Serbian Constitution, into which the provision that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia was inserted in 2006. The Memorandum contains four points.
One of them states that the issue of Kosovo “cannot be resolved in isolation, but only within the complex currents of the international community”, and that the Serbian authorities must “actively and constructively cooperate with all relevant international organisations” in order to find a sustainable solution “within the framework of its Constitution”. The students’ first demand had been criminal and political accountability for the Novi Sad tragedy; they later added a demand for parliamentary elections, which the authorities have so far refused to call. Although the elections demanded by the students have not been announced, the political campaign is already underway, and retired professor Žarko Korać says that the issue of Kosovo is always raised when political points need to be won from nationalist voters.
He adds that much of Serbia’s political opposition is “under the illusion that they can fight the current government with stronger and more sincere nationalism”. “Unfortunately, the students are now doing the same. In my opinion, defeating Vučić’s regime is only possible through a different kind of politics,” says Korać and adds:”The student Memorandum is a completely unoriginal text speaking about the peaceful reintegration of Kosovo into Serbia, something that is clearly not going to happen. You cannot build modern politics in Serbia on myth,” Korać says.
How has the Government responded?
Serbia’s president also reacted to the student movement’s Memorandum, saying that their document on Kosovo “says nothing”. “They understand nothing and comprehend nothing. They only know how to go against their own state and criticise their own people,” Vučić said on 18 May.
The authorities in Serbia and Kosovo have been conducting EU-mediated talks on normalising relations in Brussels for more than ten years. Negotiations at the highest level have been stalled since September 2023 and the armed attack by a group of Serbs on Kosovo police in the village of Banjska. Normalisation of relations with Kosovo is one of the key conditions for Serbia’s progress towards the European Union, of which Serbia is a candidate for membership.
What do citizens say about the students’ memorandum?
The position of the authorities – and of most of the parliamentary opposition, which does not recognise Kosovo’s independence – is shared by the majority of Serbian citizens. According to a 2023 survey by the Institute for European Affairs, more than 50 per cent of citizens opposed Kosovo’s independence.
Jovan from Belgrade expressed such a view to RFE/RL, though he added that Kosovo is not particularly important in the context of the students’ struggle. “I support what was their first demand – accountability for the Novi Sad accident,” Jovan says.
Marko believes it is good that the students have a position on Kosovo.
“How they articulate it further is up to them. I support them in everything they do. Even if they have views I do not necessarily agree with, I agree with them far more than with any other political option,” he says.
On the other hand, Dragoljub believes publishing the Memorandum on Kosovo was not a good idea. “Kosovo has long been an independent state and that is how it will remain. I support the students, but I cannot believe they did something so foolish. The fight against corruption and elections were sufficient demands,” the RFE/RL interviewee says.
Who represents the student movement?
The “student movement” presents itself as an umbrella organisation representing positions adopted at faculty plenums across Serbia. The plenums were established at the beginning of student faculty blockades and anti-government protests following the deaths of 16 people in the collapse of the reconstructed railway station canopy in Novi Sad. They operate according to the principle of direct democracy, under which all decisions are made by a majority vote of those present.
However, there is no answer to the question of how many students participate in the plenums, nor how many took part in adopting the Memorandum on Kosovo. Before being published on social media, the Memorandum was read out at a public forum in Kragujevac in central Serbia, where speakers expressed concern that the University of Priština, based in Mitrovica, could be shut down.
The university in Mitrovica operates within Serbia’s parallel institutional system, which Kosovo considers illegal.
Kosovo issue was also raised at the student protest on Vidovdan
This is not the first time students have expressed views on the Kosovo issue since the anti-government protests began in 2024. At the Vidovdan protest in Belgrade last year – held on the Serbian national and religious holiday – students stated that Serbia’s foreign policy “must be based on respect for Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Constitution, military neutrality, and the protection of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and in the region”.
One of the speakers at that gathering was university professor Milo Lompar, known for his right-wing views. In his speech, he said that under Serbia’s Constitution, “Kosovo and Metohija are an ‘inalienable’ part of Serbia”, and also referred to defending the sovereignty of Republika Srpska, the Serbian people in Montenegro, and Serbian national rights in Croatia and North Macedonia.
In October of the same year, students from the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, organised a protest ahead of local elections in Kosovo, demanding “accountability from all those violating the rights of the Serbian people”.
Žarko Korać believes that around the student movement there are people who sincerely support the students, “but also those with political ambitions who see the movement as a shortcut for their political careers”. “When Professor Milo Lompar – whose political positions are well known – spoke at the student protest in June 2025, it was clear that they were following the path of least resistance, the path of nationalism,” says Korać.
A memorandum from the 1990s
The title of the students’ document on Kosovo reminded part of the public of the controversial 1986 Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), which argued that the Serbian people were endangered in the former Yugoslavia. Critics regard that document as a prelude to the wars of the 1990s, which first began in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later in Kosovo in 1998. In 1999, NATO launched a bombing campaign against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in order to stop crimes committed by Serbian police and military units against Albanian civilians in Kosovo.
Kosovo’s declaration of independence followed nine years after the end of the bombing campaign and the withdrawal of Serbian police and military forces from Kosovo. Before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, senior Serbian military and political officials were convicted of war crimes against Albanians in Kosovo.
(Radio Free Europe, 19.05.2026)
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-studenti-memorandum-kosovo/33760156.html