Two students from the Novi Sad Technological Faculty were physically and verbally assaulted in the town of Crvenka on March 17 while conducting a door-to-door civic engagement campaign ahead of local elections in Serbia's Kula municipality.
The attack, captured on video and shared by the students' colleagues, occurred after the students knocked on a residence and marked it as "no one home." A man then emerged from the house and confronted them aggressively.
"You cannot enter my house. Call the police immediately," the man shouted, according to reports from N1 Info. He accused the students of foreign influence and attempting to manipulate voting, despite their stated purpose of simply encouraging civic participation in the upcoming elections.
The incident represents a physical escalation of tensions surrounding student-led civic activism in Serbia. For months, university students have been at the forefront of democratic mobilization, conducting blockades, organizing protests, and now engaging in grassroots electoral outreach. Their efforts have consistently met resistance from supporters of the ruling establishment.
The students were not entering homes but rather conducting standard door-to-door canvassing, a practice common in democratic elections worldwide. The aggressive response they encountered in Crvenka reflects the charged political atmosphere in Serbia as local elections approach.
Colleagues from the Technological Faculty's blockade movement shared video evidence of the attack on social media, drawing attention to what they describe as systematic intimidation of young activists attempting to participate in the democratic process. The footage shows the confrontation but also documents the students' non-confrontational approach and their retreat when faced with hostility.
In the Balkans, as across post-conflict regions, the path forward requires acknowledging the past without being imprisoned by it. Yet incidents like this suggest that 's democratic transformation remains contested, with civic activism increasingly met not with debate but with intimidation.
