IN THE CENTER of Belgrade, the clash broke out between the police and the protesters that gathered in front of the parliament building on Tuesday evening after the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the coronavirus lockdown would be reintroduced due to the worsening of the epidemiological situation.
The protest began with merely a few hundred participants with thousands of people joining in later, and after a group of protesters entered the parliament building by force, the incidents with the police had started.
The protesters threw eggs, rocks, plastic bottles, and torches at the police, dozens of garbage containers were set on fire, and according to the first reports, there were injured people on both sides. The people were lying on the streets.
At least two police cars were set on fire, the firefighters intervened, and the police pushed the protesters from the parliament building to the nearby streets at two o’clock in the morning.
“There will be no peace without justice,” said one of the protesters.
According to Telegraf, 13 police officers and seven civilians have been injured in the riots. The ambulance intervened more than 20 times during the night, mostly around the parliament building.
They broke into the parliament
The protest started somewhat before 9 PM when a couple of hundred protesters gathered. Following the invitation via social media, several thousands of people joined in, and one group of protesters broke into the parliament building.
Member of the Serbian parliament Djordje Vukadinovic said that “such unnecessary police brutality and so many tear gases fired haven’t been recorded since 5 October 2000” when the regime of Slobodan Milosevic was overturned in protests.
General of the Police Vladimir Rebic said that the police “is controlling the situation” in front of the parliament building.
Brnabic accused the opposition politicians
The Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic denounced the protests and the incidents in front of the Serbian parliament and said that the state and its institutions would protect law and order “as it is being done in every other democratic country.”
By accusing the opposition politicians of being responsible for the incident, in a written statement reported by the Belgrade media, Brnabic pointed out that she strongly condemned “the vandalism of the politicians who were behind the violent break into the Serbian Parliament at the moment when the state and the health system face the toughest blow from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.”
“Since they couldn’t enter the Serbian parliament on the elections, they once again showed their true violent face trying to win political points in the biggest crisis on the planet since World War II,” Brnabic pointed out.
Pointing to the fact that the number of new coronavirus cases in the world is increasing every day, she called for unity and asked for “the necessary support to the health care workers who are committed to fighting for each person’s life in Serbia.”
Serbia is in the middle of the period between the elections and forming the new government, which Vucic announced to be formed until July 25 at the latest.
In the elections held on June 21, which was boycotted by the part of the opposition politicians who claimed that the elections were irregular, Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party won 188 out of 250 seats. With a two-third majority in the parliament, it can form the government by itself.
The far-right group tried to take control of the protest
The protest started as a spontaneous gathering of citizens, and as such, it was a group of completely unorganized people. But, according to Blic, the aggressive far-right group soon came to the forefront. Nationalistic messages could be heard on the protests, such as “Kosovo is Serbia,” and “Vucic is Shiptar.” Some protesters yelled, “Go to Kosovo” to the police officers, and people sang chetnik songs.