A new demonstration against violence took place on Saturday May 27 in Belgrade the day after the big meeting of the Head of State, Aleksandar Vucic. Several tens of thousands of demonstrators responded to the call of the opposition, which intends to ride the wave of citizen anger.
Under the banner “Serbia against violence”, several tens of thousands of citizens met this Saturday evening in front of the Parliament, reports our correspondent in Belgrade, Philippe Bertinchamps. The procession then headed towards the Serbian public radio and television, RTS, accused of bias in its treatment of information. They called for the resignation of the channel’s management and editors, accused of being the ” megaphone ” power.
This demonstration was a quits or double for the opposition. The day before, President Aleksandar Vucic had indeed organized, as a show of force, a big political rally in the Serbian capital where 45 to 50,000 people were summoned, willingly or by force, from all over the country. A significant number, but still less than the approximately 60,000 demonstrators who spontaneously marched through the streets of Belgrade last week. Given the crowd that responded last night, it may well be that the opposition has won its bet.
Opposition calls for more protests
It was the fourth citizens’ demonstration in Belgrade since the killings who mourned the country at the beginning of May. The opposition, which intends to take advantage of this momentum, called for a new rally on Friday June 2. It remains to be seen what the regime’s response will be and how destabilized it will be by this tidal wave of citizen anger. The last time Serbs marched in such numbers was during protests in 2000 that led to the downfall of Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The Head of State again accused the opposition parties of having ” tried to abuse the tragedy for political purposes, while being more conciliatory than in recent times towards the demonstrators themselves. ” Those who have marched in recent weeks are in most cases good, decent, normal people who wish Serbia well “, acknowledged the Head of State. “ The ones I can’t appreciate are the politicians who want to make history by abusing tragedy “.
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