After spending 24 hours in police custody, Teodora Gardović, a 23-year-old student, walked free from the Belgrade courthouse on a Wednesday in late August. "They're trying to scare us, but it's not working," said the young woman with long brown hair, adding with a defiant look, "Everyone should spend 24 hours in a police station, it's very instructive." After embracing her friends and family, she immediately promised to return to the protests. "Tea, Tea, Tea" (short for Teodora), several dozen supporters chanted, gathered outside the large Yugoslav-style building in the center of the Serbian capital.
She had been arrested the previous day on a bus by plainclothes officers for, according to her, simply throwing a "bottle of water" at a branch of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of nationalist President Aleksandar Vučić during a demonstration. "Tea" has become one of the faces of the anti-corruption movement that has roiled this Balkan nation for nearly ten months.
Triggered by the deadly collapse of the Novi Sad train station canopy on November 1, 2024, just after it had been renovated, the protest movement grew, becoming the largest since the fall of former dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000.
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