A sea of people converged in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, on Saturday in what was the largest in a series of anti-corruption demonstrations that have upended the Balkan country in recent months.
At one point the crowd stretched for nearly two kilometers, with people filling the streets in and around the parliament and the capital’s main pedestrian square.
“We have gathered in the streets primarily to express our complete dissatisfaction after years of dictatorship, lawlessness and corruption,” said one demonstrator, Ognjen Djordjevic, a 28-year-old resident from Belgrade.
Photo: AP
The movement formed after 15 people were killed when a railway station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in November last year, igniting long-simmering anger over alleged corruption and lax oversight in construction projects.
After Saturday’s rally, the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs said that at least 107,000 people had turned out.
The Public Assembly Archive — a group that monitors crowd size — gave a much higher figure, estimating that between 275,000 and 325,000 people took to the streets. If correct, that would make Saturday’s protest one of the largest in Serbia’s recent history.
For weeks, student-led protesters have crisscrossed the country, holding rallies in Serbia’s major cities.
They have also taken their anti-corruption crusade to the rural areas and small towns that have long been the backbone of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s support.
Their return to Belgrade on Saturday ramped up already compounding pressure on Vucic’s government, with several high-ranking officials, including the prime minister, Milos Vucevic, having resigned in recent months.
Saturday’s protest, like the others before it, cut across a wide spectrum of society, bringing together those aligned with the far left and right. Amid scores of Serbian flags, some waved banners calling for environmental protection, while others demanded the return of the former breakaway province of Kosovo.
Following hours of peaceful protests, police reported that there had been some “incidents and clashes among some participants” of the protests.
At about 7:20pm, a leading student group called on all protesters to exit the area near the parliament, citing security concerns after bottles and stones were allegedly thrown. The reports of scattered incidents came as fears rose over potential clashes with supporters of Vucic’s embattled government, who had also gathered in the capital.
In the days leading up to the protest, ultranationalists and militia members camped out near the parliament and the Novi Dvor, the seat of the presidency.
Ahead of the protest, layers of riot police earlier fanned out near the encampment and around the parliament.
Late on Saturday, Vucic took to the airways again.
“There were no casualties or serious injuries,” Vucic said during the national address.
“I’m proud of the police who ensured security for all participants,” he said, adding that he believed “99 percent” of students had remained peaceful.
A day earlier, Vucic had struck a defiant tone, saying he would not “let the streets set the rules in this country.”
Some analysts had earlier warned that the situation would escalate. “We can already see for a few days that the regime is trying to escalate tensions,” political analyst Srdjan Cvijic said.
Government-backed media also broadcasted increasingly inflammatory accusations, saying the students are planning to launch a “coup,” with Vucic accusing the demonstrators of organizing “large-scale violence.”
However, the day passed with no major incidents. Farmers, students, bikers and other civilians mingled along the main thoroughfares in downtown Belgrade, as a parade of tractors headed toward the parliament as crowds amassed.
Ahead of the main afternoon protest, thousands also stood for 15 minutes of silence beginning at 11:52am to honor the victims of the Novi Sad incident, with the time marking the moment of the roof’s collapse.
The ritual was repeated in the evening, as a sprawling crowd at a major traffic roundabout waved their illuminated mobile phones in the air.
“We came for justice,” said Milica Stojanovic, a biology student at the University of Belgrade. “I hope that after this protest, things will change.”
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS