A turbulent political weekend saw President Aleksandar Vučić announce his resignation as head of SNS at the party’s rally as a fourth anti-government ‘Serbia against Violence’ protest occurred.
Friday saw a mass rally by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), dubbed “Serbia of Hope”, taking place in front of parliament.
Attended by thousands of people brought by buses from all over the country, the rally saw speeches from several people, including Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sziarto, and Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik.
Vučić spoke last and announced that he would be leaving his position as head of the party.
“Because of everything that has happened, unity and togetherness are needed more than ever,” he said, asking audience members to lower their banners and heads in a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shootings in May.
“Starting tomorrow, I will be the president of all Serbian citizens but no longer of a political party. But on June 28th, because of the crisis we find ourselves in, we will form the Movement for People and state to have a base and foundation to maintain our country in the coming two or three years of crisis, which will decide the future of Serbia”, said Vučić.
A few hours later, Defence Minister Miloš Vučević would be taking over as head of SNS.
“We remain the motor of development for our country, but also a party that nurtures and keeps traditional values of Serbia. We will continue our political commitment to keeping Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia and will care for interests of Serb communities everywhere, but most of all in countries of former Jugoslavija”, said Vučević.
On Saturday afternoon, the fourth anti-government “Serbia against violence” protest organised by parts of the opposition occurred. Tens of thousands of protesters left flowers in front of the parliament and then walked en masse to the national broadcaster “RTS” headquarters.
Surrounding the building, they chanted “thieves” and “resign” as the evening news was broadcast live. Thousands of protesters gathered in Tašmajdan Park nearby, where their demands were repeated again.
The organisers announced that the next “Serbia against violence” protest would be held on Friday, 2 June. Radomir Lazović from left-wing “Do not let Belgrade drown” (NDB) told EURACTIV that Serbia must show that it cannot continue like this.
“We plan to keep fighting to bring measures and stop hate factories, such as Pink and Happy TV. To stop fake news, aggression that we are being drowned in by regime media. We plan on fighting for our demands to be met to put Serbia on a normal path. When those demands are met, we will not stop, we need to see how to have more teachers, more psychologists, in both schools and society and how to make our social services do a better job,” he said.
(EURACTIV.rs | Bojana Zimonjić Jelisavac)
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