BELGRADE – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic insisted Sunday that he wouldn’t collapse to the 140,000 protesters who rallied within the capital in a single day demanding early elections, whereas vowing extra arrests following clashes.
Saturday’s rally was one of many largest in additional than half a 12 months of demonstrations triggered by the roof collapse at a practice station within the metropolis of Novi Unhappy in November, killing 16 individuals — a catastrophe extensively blamed on entrenched corruption.
In contrast to earlier gatherings that had handed off with out incident, this time police and protesters clashed after Saturday’s demonstration.
“Serbia has gained, and you can’t defeat Serbia by violence as some needed,” Vucic mentioned in a speech.
Accusing the student-led motion of inflicting “terror”, he promised extra arrests over the violence.
AFP journalists noticed riot police utilizing tear fuel and batons as protesters hurled flares and bottles at rows of officers in a number of clashes following the huge gathering in Belgrade.
Authorities mentioned 48 officers had been injured, one severely, and put the group measurement at 36,000 — properly under an unbiased estimate by the Archive of Public Gatherings of round 140,000.
Inside Minister Ivica Dacic mentioned 22 individuals had sought medical assist, of whom two had been severely injured.
– ‘This isn’t the top’ –
Police detained 77 individuals, and 38 had been nonetheless in custody, Dacic added.
“There might be many extra arrested for attacking police… this isn’t the top,” Vucic mentioned.
There can be “no negotiations with terrorists and people who needed to destroy the state — accountability follows”.
“Revenge should not be our language, however accountability have to be a part of our consciousness,” mentioned the president.
Later Sunday, eight individuals had been arrested on accusations together with planning to dam roads and assault state establishments “to be able to violently change the state order”, the Greater Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned in a press release.
After activists known as for a protest in entrance of the prosecutor’s workplace, a minimum of 2,000 individuals gathered there Sunday night, in response to an AFP photographer.
“This isn’t a second for withdrawal,” the protest group mentioned on Instagram forward of the gathering.
In different components of Belgrade, demonstrators blocked roads, together with the most important Autokomanda junction, the place they arrange tents, making ready for an in a single day keep.
Comparable blockades had been additionally arrange in a number of different Serbian cities, together with Novi Unhappy.
– ‘Take freedom’ –
Forward of Saturday’s protest, organisers had issued an “ultimatum” for Vucic to name elections — a requirement he had dismissed properly earlier than the rally started.
On Sunday, he reiterated there wouldn’t be any nationwide vote earlier than the top of 2026.
The outcry over the Novi Unhappy catastrophe has already led to the resignation of the nation’s prime minister.
The governing celebration has stayed in energy nonetheless, with a reshuffled administration and the president nonetheless in workplace.
Vucic has repeatedly alleged the protests are a part of a international plot to destroy his authorities.
Greater than a dozen individuals have been arrested in current weeks, a crackdown that has now turn into routine forward of enormous demonstrations.
After the rally, organisers performed a press release to the group calling for Serbians to “take freedom into your personal fingers” and giving them the “inexperienced mild”.
“The authorities had all of the mechanisms and on a regular basis to satisfy the calls for and stop an escalation,” the organisers mentioned in a press release on Instagram.
