Hundreds of thousands of people, convened by the student movement, demonstrated this Saturday in Belgrade to demand early elections in Serbia, after seven months of protests against the regime of Aleksandar Vucicto which they consider autocratic and corrupt.
As indicated by a source from the organizers to television N1, up to 500,000 protesters They were at 18.30 local time (16.30 GMT) in the center of the Serbian capital, around the Slavija square.
The authorities suspended rail traffic towards the capital on Friday, under the justification of alleged threats with bombswhile many bus lines do not work either.
The riot police block anti -government protesters in Belgrade. / AP
Protests against VUCIC began last November after collapse of a canopy At the Novi Sad trains, recently renewed by a Chinese construction company, which left 16 dead.
The protesters kept today 16 minutes of silence From 19.11 local time (17.11 GMT) in honor of each of the people deceased in the accident of Novi Sad.
“We want justicebecause in that station we could have been us or our family. We are afraid and we want justice, “a 21 -year -old philology student told Efe Maja.
Between the crowd there were banners with slogans such as “summons choices, cowardly!”, “They have bloody hands”, and “corruption kills!”
Mladen, a 68 -year -old retiree who supports students as “the only hope for Serbia,” he told Efe that he will continue to participate in the protests until the Vucic regime “leaves.”
The riot police block anti -government protesters in Belgrade. / Darko Vojinovic / AP
Students demand elections
In an open letter sent to the government, the students indicated that “The elections are the fundamental mechanism of every democratic society and that there is no alternative solution“.
Vucic, who usually calls students as “terrorist“He said today that protests” cannot be developed without violence, “Beta news agency reported.
He predicted large disturbances at 9:00 p.m. local time (19.00 GMT), when the protest ends, although he assured that security organs “will try to be moderate and tolerant.”
On March 15 there was a great demonstration in Belgrade, with about 800,000 people, which was abruptly aborted by the organizers after the alleged use of a sound cannon by the police, which caused panic among many protesters.
Also then Vucic warned of imminent acts of violencealthough in the end the concentration ended without incident.
On the eve of today’s protest, the president had said that “Serbia does not accept the Ultimatum” of the students and that there will be no advanced elections.
The riot police block anti -government protesters in Belgrade. / AP
“The Serbian State has been many times before Ultimatums of great foreign powers. And this time, foreign powers, through their local servants, have sent us another. The response of the Serbian state has always been the same: no, “he said.
According to Vucic, who dominates Serbian politics since 2012 and to which the opposition accuses of being authoritarian, the protests represent an attempt of “Western powers” of overthrowing their government, because they bother them their independence and the economic prosperity of the country.
At the same time, the president of the ruling party SNS, Milos Vucevic, headed today a Vucic followers meetingpresented as a “literary evening” in front of Parliament, just where the protesters against the government had planned to pass.
Serbian analyst Ivan Prtic assured that today’s protest is a confirmation that unhappy students and citizens have not abandoned their demands and continue to increase their pressure on the government.
“For the government, This is another day of fear and panic reactionssuch as organizing a ‘literary evening’, something that most of his followers have never attended, “he said in statements to Efe in Belgrade.
The riot police block anti -government protesters in Belgrade. / AP
In the past, President Serbio convened several early elections to strengthen the power of his party, the SNS.
In the November 2023 elections, the SNS obtained 48 % of the votes and 129 seats, also with the support of the Socialist Party and its 18 deputies.
Today’s protest coincides with ‘Vidovdan’ (San Vito), an important holiday in Serbia, which commemorates a historic defeat of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth century and the loss of Kosovo, considered the native cradle of the Serbian nation.
