Sixth day of protests in Sarajevo, protesters issue new demands to authorities after deadly tram accident

The protests, led largely by young people and high school students, began at noon in front of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the site of the accident that killed 23-year-old Erdoan Morankic and seriously injured 17-year-old student Ella Jovanovic.

After a peaceful march along Sarajevo’s main road to Skenderija and back, representatives of student protesters presented a list of demands directed at government authorities.

Kerim Zuga, a representative of high school students participating in the demonstrations, read the demands publicly.

“We demand urgent remediation of identified safety risks, the appointment of qualified professional leadership to all vacant positions in relevant institutions, the introduction of clear criteria for social assistance such as free textbooks so that support reaches those who genuinely need it rather than the children of officials or others who do not, a revision of the budget according to priorities to ensure funding for the vehicle fleet and maintenance, and the public disclosure of the names of responsible individuals along with deadlines for resolving the problems, within 30, 60, and 90 days,” Zuga said.

Protest organizers said some of their earlier demands had already produced partial results but stressed that broader institutional changes were still needed.

Participants also briefly stopped in front of the Sarajevo Canton government building, where protesters reiterated calls for accountability and repeated demands for the resignation of Sarajevo Canton Education Minister Naida Hota-Muminovic. The minister later denied allegations that students had been discouraged from attending demonstrations.

The protests were organized by citizen groups including “Hocel’ ta promjena” (“Will There Be Change”) and “For a Better Tomorrow,” which also called for a Citizens’ Plenum to discuss the future direction of the demonstrations and coordinate further demands.

Organizers said the demonstrations would continue until concrete measures are implemented.