Successive waves of protest\u2014over environmental damage, political violence, corruption, or major projects such as the Belgrade Waterfront\u2014have been portrayed as foreign-orchestrated \u201ccolour revolutions.\u201d By labelling domestic grievances as externally instigated, the regime shifts responsibility for internal failures onto outside actors, while justifying legal and repressive measures against activists and protesters. This framing intensified after the 2024 Novi Sad railway station tragedy, which triggered nationwide student-led protests and a new cycle of repression.<\/p>\n
The colour revolution narrative in Serbia functions less as a reflection of genuine belief and more as a strategic instrument of power. Reinforced through a pro-government media ecosystem and institutional cooperation with Russia, it criminalises dissent, fuels political apathy, and deepens social polarisation. Although public support for protests\u2014especially among youth\u2014reveals growing resistance to this framing, the regime\u2019s dominance over information and narrative construction remains a major obstacle to democratic change.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The concept of the \u201ccolour revolution\u201d has shifted from describing democratic uprisings in post-socialist states to serving as a powerful tool of authoritarian control. In Serbia, the ruling elite\u2014drawing heavily on the Russian strategic playbook\u2014has reframed the term as a symbol of foreign subversion aimed at overthrowing the government and destabilising the country. Since 2012, this narrative has been systematically used to delegitimise dissent, protests, and civic mobilisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":35701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7415,8621,8613,8622],"tags":[11506,11505,11502,11504,11503,11415],"vrsta":[11350],"pdfpub":[],"coauthors":[164],"class_list":["post-35666","publikacija","type-publikacija","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bscp","category-foreign-influence","category-foreign-policy","category-in-focus","tag-authoritarian-rule-in-serbia","tag-civic-mobilisation","tag-colour-revolution","tag-dissent","tag-narrative","tag-protests","vrsta-study"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/35666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publikacija"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/35666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35703,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/35666\/revisions\/35703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35666"},{"taxonomy":"vrsta","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vrsta?post=35666"},{"taxonomy":"pdfpub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pdfpub?post=35666"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=35666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}