BELGRADFollowing two days of skirmishes with riot police and supporters of authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic that left dozens injured or jailed, thousands of anti-government demonstrators returned to the streets of Serbia on Thursday evening.
Groups of teenage demonstrators yelled, “He is finished,” as they destroyed the president’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s offices in Novi Sad, a city in northern Serbia where the anti-Vucic uprising began more than nine months ago.
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The party’s downtown office was broken into by the protesters, who also took some documents and furniture with them. Neither Vucic’s followers nor the police, who have been watching the office for months, were present.
This week’s turmoil in Serbia was a significant uptick in the mostly nonviolent protests organized by university students in the country, which have weakened Vucic’s solid hold on power in the Balkan nation.
In the midst of pandemonium and smoke clouds on Wednesday, rival groups threw bottles and rocks at one another. At one point, an army security guard at the SNS party headquarters shot his weapon into the air, stating afterwards that he believed his life was in jeopardy.
Ivica Dacic, the interior minister, stated on Thursday that there were meetings at about 90 places across the nation the night before.
The president of Serbia has come under fire for allegedly suppressing democratic freedoms and fostering corruption and organized crime in the nation that is vying to join the EU. He refutes those accusations.
Marta Kos, the EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement, expressed grave worry about the violent reports.
Kos said on the social media platform X that for the EU to move forward, citizens must be able to openly voice their opinions and journalists must be able to report without fear of retaliation or violence.
Despite harsh warnings against protests from Vucic and other government officials, protesters gathered in huge numbers Thursday evening in Novi Sad, the capital Belgrade, and a few smaller cities.
Tear gas was deployed by riot police to scatter protesting groups in Belgrade on Wednesday night. Outside the presidential building downtown, a makeshift camp of Vucic’s supporters was surrounded by police officers.
Interior Minister Dacic said the demonstrators were assaulting supporters of the ruling party. He promised to identify and punish individuals who violated the law.
Students at universities took to X to accuse the authorities of attempting to incite a civil war through the altercations during protests. Despite drawing hundreds of thousands of people, the rallies have so far mostly gone off without any incidents.
The majority of the violence that has occurred in recent months has been between protestors and the police, not between opposing factions.
A post by the unofficial group Students in Blockade stated that police were protecting the regime supporters who were hurling rocks and setting off flares at the demonstrators. Since late last year, students from all over Serbia have started using the account to criticize the government.
After a reconstructed train station canopy in Novi Sad collapsed, killing sixteen people and sparking allegations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects, protests began in November.
Vucic has refused to hold an early parliamentary election, despite the demonstrators’ demands. Vucic has had close connections with China and Russia, but Serbia is officially aiming to join the EU.
