Serbia's Judges Take to the Streets: The Latest Front in Vucic's Long War on Independence

There is a particular kind of courage required for judges to put down their gavels and take to the streets. These are people who have built careers on the careful application of rules, on the deliberate avoidance of political theatrics. When they abandon their courtrooms for protest banners, it means something has gone very wrong indeed. In Serbia, at the end of January 2026, something has.

On January 28, the Serbian parliament, dominated by President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), pushed through a package of amendments to judicial laws. The reforms, quickly dubbed the "Mrdic laws" after the ruling party deputy who proposed them, would fundamentally alter the relationship between Serbia's judiciary and its executive branch. Courts would lose independence. Prosecutors would answer to government officials. And the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, which has been investigating some of the most sensitive cases in the country, would effectively cease to function as an independent body.

The Novi Sad Connection

To understand why these laws matter, you need to understand what happened in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. That was the day a concrete canopy at the city's train station collapsed, killing sixteen people. The station had just completed a renovation funded in part through China's Belt and Road Initiative. Questions about construction standards, contract oversight, and government corruption followed immediately.

What started as grief quickly transformed into anger. Students took to the streets, then workers, then ordinary citizens. By March 2025, more than 100,000 people were marching through Belgrade in the largest anti-government protests Serbia had seen in years. The protests have continued ever since, evolving into a sustained challenge to Vucic's increasingly authoritarian rule.

The Special Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the Novi Sad collapse and related corruption allegations. Other sensitive cases, including investigations into the activities of organized crime figures with alleged connections to the ruling party, have also been moving through the system. The "Mrdic laws" would give the government new powers to interfere with these investigations, reassign cases, and remove prosecutors deemed insufficiently cooperative.

Judges in the Streets

The response from Serbia's legal community has been immediate and extraordinary. On February 2, judges and prosecutors in six cities announced they would suspend work, handling only urgent cases. In Novi Sad, hundreds of legal professionals gathered outside the courthouse, joined by law students, bar association members, and ordinary citizens.

The Judicial Trade Union has been coordinating the response, but the movement extends well beyond organized labor. Individual judges in Belgrade have posted notices explaining that they are suspending work due to "violations of legislative and constitutional procedure." Law faculties have expressed solidarity. Private lawyers have joined the protests.

This is not normal behavior for a profession that prides itself on political neutrality. Judges do not typically march. They do not give interviews attacking government policy. They certainly do not suspend their work to make political points. The fact that they are doing so now reflects the depth of the crisis.

What the Laws Actually Do

The "Mrdic laws" operate on several fronts simultaneously. First, they strengthen the powers of court presidents, who are appointed through processes the government can influence. These administrative heads would gain new authority over case assignments and personnel decisions, making it easier to steer sensitive cases toward sympathetic judges or away from troublesome ones.

Second, the laws reduce the independence of the Supreme Council of the Prosecutor's Office, the body that was supposed to insulate prosecutorial decisions from political interference. The council's role in appointments and transfers would be diminished, with more power flowing to the Justice Ministry.

Third, and most consequentially, the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime would lose much of its operational independence. Cases currently being investigated could be reassigned. New leadership could be installed. The investigations that have embarrassed the government most, including those related to the Novi Sad disaster, could be quietly buried.

The European Response

Serbia has been a candidate for European Union membership since 2012. Progress has been slow, complicated by issues ranging from the status of Kosovo to questions about democratic governance. The "Mrdic laws" represent exactly the kind of backsliding that EU officials have warned against.

The European Commission has not yet issued a formal response, but unofficial reactions have been pointed. European politicians have expressed "concern" about the developments, which in EU diplomatic language is about as strong as it gets without formal condemnation. The next progress report on Serbia's accession bid will certainly reflect these events.

For Vucic, this creates an awkward dynamic. He has long positioned himself as pro-European while maintaining close ties with Russia and China. The balancing act requires occasional gestures toward democratic norms, at least enough to keep the accession process technically alive. Laws that transparently subordinate the judiciary to the ruling party make that balancing act considerably harder.

What Comes Next

The protests show no signs of ending. If anything, the judicial crisis has given new energy to a movement that was already fourteen months old. Students who started marching after the Novi Sad tragedy have been joined by professionals who would never normally consider themselves activists. The coalition against Vucic is broader and more diverse than ever.

The government's response has been predictably defiant. Vucic has described protesters as "terrorists" trying to overthrow him. State media has attacked the judicial protests as politically motivated. The "Mrdic laws" were signed by the president on January 30, just two days after parliamentary approval, a pace that left little time for debate or amendment.

Elections are expected sometime in 2026, though Vucic has been vague about the timing. The opposition has been demanding snap elections for months, arguing that the current parliament no longer represents the will of the Serbian people. Whether those demands will be met, and whether any election held under current conditions could be considered fair, are open questions.

For now, the judges will continue their suspension. The prosecutors will stay in the streets. And the sixteen people who died under a collapsed canopy in Novi Sad will remain symbols of everything that has gone wrong in Serbia, and everything that might yet be fixed if enough people refuse to look away.