Serbia | Arrests and injuries at mass protest in Belgrade

Violent clashes between police and demonstrators during mass anti-government protests in Serbia's capital Belgrade resulted in arrests and injuries. Police Chief Dragan Vasiljević announced that six police officers and two other people were injured in the riots on Saturday. Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested.

According to Vasiljević, police used batons after being attacked by protesters. "Chemical agents" were not used. Journalists from the AFP news agency saw police use tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Officers were pelted with stones, and some protesters used smoke grenades.

According to estimates by the Archive of Public Gatherings organization, approximately 140,000 people participated in the demonstration in Belgrade. Police reported only 36,000 participants, but according to AFP reporters on the scene and aerial photographs, the number was significantly higher. The violence erupted after hours of peaceful protest.

Protesters traveled to Belgrade from across the country on Saturday. Many held Serbian flags and signs bearing the names of their hometowns. At the beginning of the rally, they sang the national anthem and observed a minute's silence for the victims of a disaster at the Novi Sad train station last November.

For more than half a year, Serbia has been rocked by the most violent wave of protests since the 1990s. The trigger was the collapse of a train station canopy in Novi Sad in November of last year, which killed 16 people.

Initially, the focus was on the cause of the accident, but later the demonstrations, primarily led by students, turned against the government and the widespread corruption in the country. The protests are now demanding new elections.

The government is under severe pressure because of the demonstrations. The students who organized the protests issued an ultimatum to President Aleksandar Vučić to call new elections by 9:00 p.m. Saturday evening. Vučić had already rejected the demand on Friday, declaring that no elections would be held before the end of 2026.

After their ultimatum expired, the protest organizers declared that there was now a "green light" for the Serbs to "take their freedom into their own hands." The government had "had all the time it needed to meet the demands and prevent an escalation," they said in a statement posted on Instagram after the demonstration.

"Instead, they chose violence and repression," the protest organizers accused the Serbian authorities. "The responsibility for any radicalization of the situation lies with them."

In a speech on Sunday, Vučić accused the demonstrators. "What were they actually thinking? Did they believe they were more powerful than the state? No one is more powerful than the state – that's obvious," the president said. Now the time for accountability has come, Vučić continued, ruling out pardoning those arrested. AFP/nd