Widely supported ‘Serbia against violence’ protests shake government as popularity drops

The “Serbia against violence” anti-government protests taking place since two fatal shootings in early May has motivated apolitical citizens who overwhelmingly support them, while support for the ruling party is on the decline, according to a poll by CRTA.

The protests have seen demonstrators call for resignations and a change of government and demanding an end to a culture of violence in the media, public discourse and society.

According to a poll by CRTA, at least half of Serbians support the protests, a third want to take part, and 93% know what is happening and why.

Vojislav Mihailović, director of public opinion research at CRTA, said, “The protests are supported by citizens from all segments of society and parts of the country, and support does not fall below 50% in any of the regions in Serbia.”

“There has been an awakening of citizens who were apathetic, which at the moment is somewhat more in the hands of the opposition,” he explains, adding that it will be monitored how public opinion will move in the coming period.

He added that support for the protests is high, and the figures suggest that even those supporting the ruling party support the protests at least in part.

“A fifth of citizens support all the demands of the protest, and more than two-thirds support at least part of the demands. Undecided citizens also support them to a large extent, but also those who state that they are closer to the ruling party,” Mihailović added.

According to data from another CRTA survey on the protests, one in four citizens said they went to the protest even though they believed none of the demands would be met.

As for the popularity of the ruling party, it has taken quite a hit in the last year. Political analyst Đorđe Vukadinović said he does not think the protests have led to a significant drop in the popularity of the ruling party, but support has fallen by up to 7% since the elections in 2022.

Mihailović added that the survey data shows that some SNS supporters support the protests, with as many as 70% supporting at least some of the demands.

Vukadinović concedes that the protests have shaken the government and have expressed weaknesses and systemic problems in society, as well as general dissatisfaction, but that the government has tried to win back voters.

“T regime tried to mitigate this drop in ratings with social measures and various campaigns, which resulted, not as they expected, in the growth of ratings but in stopping the collapse and stagnation,” he explained.

Vukadinović also said that support for SNS remains greater than for the opposition, for which the drop in government ratings has not been beneficial. This could be a different story for the other parties, he added.

According to Vukadinović, there are two reasons why the growth in popularity of the opposition parties does not proportionally accompany the decline in the rating of the ruling party.

“The first is that the regime knows at which moment the greatest danger threatens it from which side, so it directs its campaign to that side. In the first three months, that focus was on the campaign against national-right-wing parties, and now, from the beginning, that campaign is aimed at pro-European opposition parties, which in that way dampens their possible growth to some extent. The second is that there is division and even strife on the political scene, which does not seem overly impressive, nor does it encourage some future, undecided voters,” he said.

The support for opposition parties is between two and five per cent. However, this is the rating of separate parties and will not change significantly until there is some unification and consolidation of the opposition, Vukadinović added.

He also pointed to support for the opposition not having decreased in the past month and pointed to the minimal growth in some opposition parties. At the moment, these are parties with a pro-European, civil orientation.

Vukadinović also said it was difficult to predict how “Serbia against violence” protests would look in the future, but he thinks they have already reached their apex.

“It was to be expected that the protests would subside and decrease, both quantitatively and energetically, until some next opportunity and some other reasons and triggers. However, it is far from the fact that the government can sleep peacefully now, but the biggest danger is that she passed them in those protests, at least temporarily,” concluded Vukadinović.

(Milena Antonijević | EURACTIV.rs)