Protests against Aleksandar Vučić continued in Bačka Palanka on August 16, 2026, as students and local residents marked one year since violent incidents during previous demonstrations in the town. The gathering, which included a protest march through the streets, commemorated the anniversary of attacks that student activist Ivana Šikman says left the community shaken and still searching for answers about who was responsible.

According to Šikman, the events of August 11 and 12, 2025, were unprecedented in Bačka Palanka, a town in northern Serbia near Novi Sad, where protests had previously been peaceful. She described how demonstrators were targeted with various objects, including pyrotechnics and bottles, resulting in minor injuries among participants. Šikman emphasized that the presence of riot police and unidentified individuals escalated tensions, and that the local population, including elderly people and children, was caught off guard by the violence.

The 2026 protest began at the intersection of Kralja Petra Prvog and Svetozara Miletića streets, where attendees observed 17 minutes of silence—16 minutes for the victims of a recent roof collapse in Novi Sad and an additional minute for a boy who died three years ago in Bačka Palanka after coming into contact with a live electrical cable. The march route passed the police station and municipal building, with speeches scheduled for later in the evening. Cyclists from Novi Sad and a group of bikers also joined the demonstration, highlighting solidarity across different communities.

Šikman stated that, despite a year passing since the attacks, neither students nor residents have received any official explanation or accountability for the violence. “We came again, after a year, because we still have no answer to the question of who was responsible and why we were attacked,” she told reporters. The protest in Bačka Palanka is part of a broader wave of anti-government demonstrations taking place daily in cities and towns across Serbia.