The online survey “Let’s hear each other! Your view on the #1of5million protest,” conducted on 12 February 2019 (N=136), reveals two truths about the protests at the same time: high support and a positive perception of the atmosphere — but also serious doubt that the protest will actually bring change.
When respondents are asked what Serbia’s main problem is, the most frequent associations are corruption, crime, partitocracy, weakened institutions, and a “media blackout,” alongside a personalization of power (“Vučić”) and economic issues such as low wages and living standards. This suggests the protest is not merely a reaction to a single event, but to a long-standing sense of systemic injustice.
Participation data show solid mobilization: 28.99% say they attend regularly, and an additional 25.36% say they attend often or rarely. Still, almost a quarter (24.64%) do not attend protests at all, and some cite reasons such as work obligations, fear (“I’m not allowed / I don’t dare”), distance, or distrust in the organizers. In other words, the protest mobilizes, but it does not break through the barriers of everyday life and skepticism.
Ratings of the protest itself are mostly favorable. Speakers and messages receive a majority-positive balance (e.g., “what they said”: 60% positive/very positive), the atmosphere is especially strong (36.96% very positive, 31.16% positive), and the number of participants and the “class composition” are also generally assessed positively. However, the strongest negative finding concerns the media: reporting by national media is rated as negative or very negative by as many as 77.54% of respondents, and local media by 63.04%. Respondents also perceive the government’s attitude toward the protests as sharply negative (68.84% very negative). In this picture, the protest appears as an event that “lives” in the streets, but is narrowed or distorted in the public sphere.
Motives for attending are primarily normative and systemic: 42.41% choose “establishing a democratic society and the rule of law,” while “changing the government” stands at 22.51%. A large majority see the protest as civic (73.91%), not as a party project. Yet when the question shifts to outcomes, sobriety sets in: only 10.14% believe the protest will fully achieve their motivation, while the combined share of those who believe it will do so “to a small extent” or “not at all” is 51.45%. This is the key tension: the energy exists, but expectations are fragile.
Ideologically, the profile is diverse: the largest group are social democrats (31.16%), followed by liberals, the apolitical, greens, and conservatives. The voting question further shows the fragmentation of opposition potential: alongside a significant share of those who would not vote or do not know whom they would vote for, votes are spread across multiple options, with strong suggestions of a boycott and the need for “new faces.” In messages to the organizers, demands dominate for clear goals, better communication of the plan, and distance from compromised political elites — indicating that the protest is legitimized as civic, but constantly defends itself from attempts at political capture.
Methodological notes: This is a self-selected online survey, so the results are not representative of Serbia.