Belgrade
Associated Press
–
Riot police fired tear gas at thousands of anti-government protesters in the Serbian capital on Saturday.
A major Belgrade rally against Serbian populist president Alexander Vic has been called to support the demand for an early parliamentary election.
Tens of thousands of protests have been raised after nearly eight months of sustained demonstrations led by Serbian university students rattling Vitic’s solid grip on Balkan power.
The large crowd chanted, “I want an election!” Many people were unable to reach the venue when they filled the central Surabia Square in the capital and several blocks around it.
Tension was high before and between the gatherings. Riot police were deployed around government buildings and near the Vitic loyalty camp in central Belgrade. A skirmish exploded between a riot officer and a group of protesters near the camp.
“Elections are a clear way of coming from the social crisis caused by government actions, which certainly goes against the interests of their own people,” one student said. “Today, June 28, 2025, the current authorities declared it illegal.”
At the end of the official part of the assembly, students told the crowd to “take freedom into their own hands.”
College students were the key force behind the nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that began after the collapse of the canopy at the renovated railway station on November 1st.
Many have condemned concrete roof crashes over government corruption and negligence in the state infrastructure projects, leading to repeated mass protests.
“We can’t take any more, so we’re here today,” said Darko Kovasevic. “This has been going on for too long. We are suffering from corruption.”
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party repeatedly rejected requests for early voting, accusing protesters of plans to promote violence with orders from overseas, but they did not designate it.
Vucic authorities have launched crackdowns on Serbia’s impressive universities and other enemies, but pressure on independent media has sought to curb the demonstrations.
Although numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, Saturday’s massive anti-Vock Rally show suggested that the resolution would continue after almost eight months of almost daily protest despite unforgiving pressure.
Serb police, firmly controlled by the Vucic government, said 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday.
Saturday is a religious holiday, marking the date when Serbs marked the 14th century battle with the Ottoman Turks in Kosovo, the beginning of hundreds of years of Turkish rule and retains symbolic importance.
In their speech, some of the speakers at Saturday’s student meeting evoked the theme. This was also used in the 1990s to promote Serbian nationalism, leading to the inciting ethnic warfare following the dissolution of former Yugoslavia.
Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused with scores of Belgrade supporters from other parts of the country, wearing t-shirts that many read “will not give up on Serbia.” They were attending the Vitic Loyalty Camp in central Belgrade, where they have been staying in their tents since mid-March.
As always, at a business show, Vucic handed the presidential award in the capital to worthy people, including artists and journalists.
“People don’t have to worry, the nation is protected and thugs are put to trial,” Wütchick told reporters on Saturday.
Serbia’s presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2027.
Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of conspiring to overthrow the government, banning several people from Croatia and Montenegro theatre directors from entering the country without explanation.
The Serbian railway company has suspended train services over the bomb threat that critics said had said, and it was an obvious bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for a rally.
Authorities made a similar move in March, the largest anti-government protest ever in the Balkan country.
Vucic’s loyalists set up camp in the park outside his office. The peaceful gathering on March 15 ended with a sudden panic littered with some of the crowd, causing allegations that authorities had used Sonic weapons against peaceful protesters. The accusation authorities denied it.
A former extreme nationalist, Vicch has become more and more authoritarian since coming to power over a decade ago. He says he officially hopes Serbia will join the European Union, but critics say Vic has curtailed democratic freedom as he strengthened relations between Russia and China.
