Footage of anti-corruption protest in Belgrade misrepresented online

"Over 1 MILLION Christians flood the streets of Serbia, boldly declaring the nation a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY," claims a December 10, 2025 post on X. It shares footage of a large nighttime demonstration where many wave the red, white and blue flag of Serbia.

"We need a revival of this magnitude in The USA," another X post circulating the same clip says. "These anti-government protesters declare: Christianity Will Prevail."

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Screenshot of three posts on X taken December 17, 2025

Identical footage can be found with the same claim across social media including on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, with posts in French, Dutch, German, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese. 

However, the video has no connection to a push for more Christian values in Serbia, which is a largely Orthodox Christian country. 

It shows one of the many demonstrations held in Serbia since November 1, 2024 when a concrete canopy at a recently renovated train station in Novi Sad -- the country's second-largest city -- collapsed killing 16 people, including two children.

The accident marked the starting point of a widespread protest movement that has seen a significant portion of the country mobilize. Opponents of President Aleksandar Vučić uphold the tragedy as a symbol of corruption.

Origin of the footage

Using reverse images searches, AFP found several posts that include the video, with the oldest published on March 15, 2025 (archived here, here, here and here).

One of those accounts also posted several similar clips filmed from the same vantage point on that day to Instagram (archived here and here). 

That account captioned the matching video: "Belgrade, March 15, 2025" (archived here).

In a comment the post's author gave additional context saying: "Yesterday, March 15, 2025, Serbia saw one of its largest protests in decades as over 750.000 people flooded Belgrade. The student-led demonstration dubbed '15th for the 15' was a culmination of months-long anti-corruption protests sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad." 

At the time, Serbia's interior ministry said at least 107,000 people had turned out for the March 15 demonstration, while the Public Assembly Archive -- a group that monitors crowd size -- estimated that between 275,000 to 325,000 people took to the streets.

An AFP journalist in Belgrade also recognized the location in the video as Slavija Square, one of the largest squares in the Serbian capital.

Using Google Maps it is possible to pinpoint the exact location where the video was filmed from one of the buildings on Beogradska Street, opposite a park where the protesters had gathered. The buildings visible in the background match those shown on Google Street View.

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A comparison of a screenshot of the social media video (L) and an image available via Google Street View with the matching buildings highlighted added by AFP

Aerial images captured by AFP from that day also show thousands of protesters gathered in the same place, in Slavija Square. The blue lights along the top of a building located parallel to the park appear in both sequences.

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Comparison of the video from social media (L) and images AFP captured during the protest with elements highlighted by AFP

In another video sequence captured by AFP the crowd is visible from a similar angle to that in the social media clip. The traffic lights and the tall building located on the other side of the park are clearly visible.

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Comparison of the video from social media (L) and images AFP captured during the protest with elements highlighted by AFP

Videos from the March 15 demonstration in Serbia have repeatedly been used out of context in posts falsely claiming they show other protest movements.