Thousands of people from all over Serbia on Friday on the eve of the Great Departure Assembly met in Belgrade. On Saturday, several tens of thousands of people are expected to participate in the protest. President Aleksandar Vučič considers demonstrations to be illegal and claims that they are going to violent. They also did not allow several foreign journalists to the country on Friday. According to the AP report, TASR reports this.
Students from other parts of Serbia to Belgrade come after several days of marches. At their arrival, a small red carpet was placed on the sidewalk and the crowd waving their flags loudly welcomed them. The protest is the culmination of several months of demonstrations against corruption in the government of President Vučič. He repeatedly warned that the assembly was planned to violate and threatened the arrest in case of any incidents. In addition, Vučič’s supporters spend the night in the center of the city, which, according to AP, encourages concerns about the struggles with demonstrators.
On Friday night at a press conference, the President said again that Authorities received several reports of alleged unrest, and described Saturday’s assembly as “illegal”. He also reiterated the claims that the protests were behind Western intelligence services in order to shut it down from power. “I do not accept blackmail, I will not agree with pressure, I am President of Serbia and I will not allow the street to determine the rules,” Vučič declared. The police had previously detained six opposition activists for suspicion of “preparation of activities against constitutional order and security”.
In addition, several journalistic teams from Croatia stopped at the border and rejected their accession to Serbia. The authorities stated that Their operation in the country could pose a security risk. According to STA agency, they also rejected one Slovenian reporter. The decision of the Serbian authorities has already been condemned by regional journalistic organizations.
Anti -government protests in Serbia caused a collapse of a concrete shelter above the entrance to the railway station in Novi Sad, where 15 people were killed. Much of the Serbs are convinced that the tragedy has contributed to the corruption of government officials, their laxity and insufficient supervision on the construction. The superstructure collapsed only a few months after the reconstruction of the building.
The protests were prompted by the resignation of several high -ranking representatives, including Prime Minister Miloš Vučevič and the mayor of Novi Sad Milan Djurič. Goran Vesič and Tomislav Momirovič also resigned.
