BELGRADE, Serbia: Blowing whistles or horns and banging pots, more than 10,000 people protested on Saturday against Serbia’s powerful Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his election as the country’s new president.
The protests in Belgrade and other Serbian cities marked the sixth day in a row of demonstrations against Vucic’s election triumph last weekend.
The noisy crowds first gathered Saturday outside the Serbian government headquarters in central Belgrade, joining hundreds of policemen and soldiers who were holding a separate rally over low wages and poor living standards.
Chanting “Vucic, thief, you stole the vote!,” the demonstrators then marched toward the police headquarters.
The protests by mostly young people have been held every day since Sunday’s election when Vucic polled 55 percent of the votes and avoided a runoff election. Opposition groups have alleged irregularities, including muzzling of the media during the campaign, voter intimidation and bribes.
Student groups have demanded replacement of the state election commission, the state TV editors and the parliament speaker.
Vucic brushed the claims aside.
“I am thankful to the citizens for the massive support that only encourages me to work more,” he said. “It is important that the protests are peaceful and democratic and all will be fine.”
Government officials claim the demonstrations are organized by opposition leaders, who have denied doing so.
“We have tried to induce change within the system and we have failed,” said protester Djordje Djolovic.
“All that’s left for the people is to fight outside of the system, on the streets, with no violence, but with determination, and to the end,” he said.
Thousands rally against leader Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade
Thousands rally against leader Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade
French-Israeli activists hit out at ‘complicity in genocide’ case
- Israel’s retaliation flattened much of Gaza and left more than 71,800 people dead, according to the health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations
NETANUA, Israel: Two French-Israeli activists facing legal summons in France for “complicity in genocide” denounced on Sunday what they described as a political trial.
The summons were issued in July last year for lawyer Nili Kupfer-Naouri of the Israel is Forever group and Rachel Touitou of the Tsav 9 group over protests in 2024 and 2025 in which trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza were blocked at checkpoints.
The summons call for the two to appear before an investigating magistrate but not for their detention.
Speaking at an event in Netanya in central Israel, Kupfer-Naouri asserted that “this is not an individual case, this is a state matter... this is a political trial.”
Touitou told AFP that she had “protested peacefully, my only ‘weapon’ was an Israeli flag,” adding she had been motivated by accusations of Hamas looting aid while hostages were “rotting” in militants’ hands.
“International law cannot be hijacked and instrumentalized for political ends,” she added.
Kupfer-Naouri, who has filed a slander complaint in France against organizations involved in the case, said: “You cannot be accused of complicity in genocide when no court, either French or international, has ruled that there is a genocide in Gaza.”
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation flattened much of Gaza and left more than 71,800 people dead, according to the health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
A ceasefire has been in place since October 10, though both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violations.
