A spectacular military parade with tanks, rocket systems and fighters took place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Saturday. According to local officials, this was the greatest demonstration of the army’s strength in the history of this country, TASR reports on the basis of AP report.
About 10,000 soldiers attended the show, who marched in the columns through the district of Nový Belgrade, while the gathered crowd waved Serbian flags. At the event, domestic production weapons, as well as rocket launchers from Israel, drones purchased from the United Arab Emirates, tanks delivered to Russia, or anti -aircraft systems from China, showed up at the event, reflecting close to Belgrade relations with Moscow and Beijing despite his declared efforts to join the European Union.
Surprised foreign systems
The most attention of military experts, however, has earned the Israeli universal artillery system Puls capable of burning out different types of ammunition with a different range and combat warhead, respectively a charge. Its reach is up to 300 kilometers, which means that it can hit most metropolises of the surrounding Balkan countries, writes AP. The show was also a showcase of two French Rafale fighters. Serbia ordered 12 such multipurpose aircraft, supplied to it in the coming years.
According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučič, the tour of Serbia stressed the ability to defend its independence and sovereignty and to act as a deterrent against any potential foreign aggressor. Critics, in turn, claim that its aim was not to show the power of the army, but to strengthen Vučičov populist regime, which has long faced protests led by students and foreign criticism for their increasingly authoritarian nature.
Civil servants were weighed by buses
Opposition leaders accused the government of the abuse of the army as political support, and human rights organizations, in turn, pointed out that some civil servants were pushed to take part in it and consider them hundreds of buses there.
At the same time, according to the AP, the Police Police prevented hundreds of university students and other opposition supporters who have been organizing anti -corruption protests against Vučič and his government for more than ten months to participate in the show as spectators.
Anti -government protests in Serbia prompted the tragedy of November 1, 2024, when a recently reconstructed superstructure at the railway station collapsed in the city of Nový Sad in the autonomous area of Vojvodina. 16 people lost their lives as a result of this tragedy. Independent experts and opposition politicians attribute incident to negligence and corruption under the current government. Vučič rejected the demand of the demonstrators to declare early parliamentary elections and instead intensified the intervention in recent times.
