Volunteers in Serbia are painting over pro-government graffiti and scrubbing underpasses in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Subotica after the Student List's election win on October 25.

Volunteers answered a call from the activist group Eko straza (Eco Guard) on October 28 to whitewash the Zeleni venac underpass in central Belgrade, covering graffiti backing the SNS-led United Serbia list and slogans attacking Ilija Srdanovic, the Student List's lead candidate, Danas reported. "The work action has started and will last until the job is done," the students said.

The clean-ups are the street-level version of the change of power in Serbia. During two years of protests sparked by the collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy in November 2024, the walls of Serbian cities became a battleground of slogans, and government supporters ran a counter-protest encampment in Belgrade's Pionirski park, next to the presidency, for months. The SNS-led camp lost the election to the student-backed movement in a landslide that ended 14 years of SNS rule.

Volunteers clean an underpass in Belgrade after Serbia's October 25 election. Source: X/Yugoslavya Gurusu (@tojetoturska)

Volunteers cleaned up Pionirski park first. Students in Blockade, the protest movement behind the Student List, followed with a campaign called "Gradi, pa posadi" (Build, then plant), asking citizens to clean buildings, streets and parks and strip offensive slogans from facades.

The actions spread on October 31. In Belgrade volunteers painted over graffiti at the Autokomanda overpass, Novo groblje, the Ada roundabout and an underpass in Dorcol. In Novi Sad residents cleaned the facades of a design school, the Detelinara market and blocks in Liman, and law and business students repainted their faculty building. In Subotica locals cleared parks and facades in Centar III, Prozivka and Palic, Beta reported.

Eko straza said it was acting "while we wait for a new government to be formed and for institutions to take on their part of the work".

Actor Gordan Kicic, who joined the Zeleni venac clean-up, called it "first aid" for an underpass that is a protected cultural monument and said it needed a full renovation by the city and municipal authorities.

The clean-up is part of a wider reckoning with the old order in the week since the vote. Protesters stormed the newsroom of pro-government TV Informer on October 26, and the head of public broadcaster RTS resigned on October 28 after pressure from staff and the Student List.