BELGRADE: Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets in Serbia on Thursday after two days of clashes with loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic and riot police that left dozens injured or detained. Police fired tear gas in the country’s capital and several other incidents were reported elsewhere.
In the northern city of Novi Sad, where the anti-Vucic revolt in Serbia started more than nine months ago, groups of young protesters shouted, “He is finished,” as they demolished the offices of the president’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
The demonstrators broke windows on the party’s downtown office and carried away some documents and pieces of furniture from inside. The police or Vucic’s supporters, who have guarded the office for months, where nowhere to be seen.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, police in the evening fired tear gas in at least two locations to disperse the protesters and keep groups of supporters of the opposing camps apart. Protesters in a downtown area scrambled in panic, some tumbling to the ground as they tried to run away.
Vucic told pro-government Informer television that “the state will win” as he announced a crackdown on anti-government protesters, accusing them of inciting violence and of being “enemies of their own country.”
He reiterated earlier claims that the protests have been organized from abroad, offering no evidence.
The unrest throughout Serbia this week marked a serious escalation in largely peaceful demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have shaken Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
Rival groups on Wednesday hurled rock and bottles at each other amid clouds of smoke and chaos. An army security officer at the SNS party offices at one point fired his gun in the air, saying later he felt his life had been in danger.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday said there were gatherings at some 90 locations in the country the previous evening.
The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and of allowing organized crime and corruption to flourish in the country that is a candidate for European Union membership. He denies those allegations.
The EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said the reports of violence were “deeply concerning.”
“Advancing on the EU path requires citizens can express their views freely and journalists can report without intimidation or attacks,” Kos added on the social media platform X.
Protesters gathered in large numbers again on Thursday evening in the capital Belgrade, in Novi Sad and in some smaller towns, defying sharp warnings against protests from Vucic and other government officials.
On Wednesday evening in Belgrade riot police used tear gas to disperse groups of protesters. Police officers formed a cordon around a makeshift camp of Vucic’s loyalists outside the presidency building downtown.
Dacic, the interior minister, accused the protesters of attacking governing party loyalists. He said “those who broke the law will be identified and sanctioned.”
University students posted on X to accuse the authorities of trying to “provoke a civil war with the clashes” at demonstrations. The rallies so far passed for the most part without incident even while drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
Occasional violence in the past months mostly involved incidents between protesters and the police, rather than between rival groups.
“Police were guarding the regime loyalists who were throwing rocks and firing flares at the protesters,” a post by the informal group, Students in Blockade, said. The account is run by students from across Serbia who have been protesting the government since late last year.
Demonstrations started in November after a renovated train station canopy crashed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects.
The protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Serbia is formally seeking EU membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China.
