Opponents of President Vučić and the ruling party tried to break into the capital’s mayor’s office yesterday and more than 35 people were detained. The opposition does not agree with the election results and is demanding that they be annulled while investigating reports of irregularities.
The protests have not subsided for a week; on Sunday, Serbian demonstrators took more radical measures. Hundreds of opposition supporters stormed City Hall, police fired tear gas
Last night, protesters threw stones, sticks and eggs at the city council building, broke windows and tried to break through. They chanted: “Thieves,” “Vučić is Putin.” Thousands of protesters gathered in the city center, reports N1. .
Opposition activists claim writes BBC that police used excessive force on Sunday. One of the leaders of the Left-Green Front, Radomir Lazovic, says officers beat him and several others with batons. They say the government manipulated the elections, which the ruling party won.
Srdjan Milivojevic and Vladimir Obradovic, two opposition leaders, tried to open the door to the building. The police used pepper spray to repel the protesters. Opposition leaders suspect agents provocateurs were involved in breaking the windows, prompting police intervention.
The center-left opposition movement Serbia Against Violence does not recognize the results of recent general and local elections, in which the ruling populist party won a majority of votes. writes “European truth”. An international observer mission pointed to violations such as bribery and the organized transport of voters from the provinces to polling stations in the capital.
President Aleksandar Vucic called the accusations “nonsense and lies.” He addressed the nation from his office, located less than 100 meters from the epicenter of the protests, and said that what was happening was due to an “external factor”:
“These people know that no one wants to vote for them, they know that they will never be able to win the trust of society. We have been warning for several days about the external factor, about what is happening. Those who vowed to fight violence have just once again confirmed that they are real thugs.”
Moscow agrees with Vucic: Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the protests in Belgrade attempts by the West to “stir up the situation using the techniques of “Maidan coups.”
Meanwhile, the Serbian authorities continue to make tough statements against the opposition. President Vučić convened an urgent meeting of the Serbian National Security Council. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said that those storming government buildings in Belgrade are “depriving millions of Serbs of the right to vote”:
“They are not interested in peace, they openly call for fratricide. Serbia is not important to them. They despise her. But all these hooligans and vain revolutionaries should know that the Serbian government agencies are strong enough to cope with this attempt to overthrow the state.”
The electoral process in Serbia, which has been a candidate for membership since 2012 EU, “requires tangible improvements and further reforms,” the European Commission said. Serbian police said 38 demonstrators had been detained following opposition protests in Belgrade that ended in clashes. As European Pravda reports, the head of the police department, Ivica Ivkovic, said this. According to him, most of the detainees are suspected of calling for a violent change in the constitutional order and violent behavior at public meetings. Ivkovic also said that two police officers have serious injuries, one of them will be operated on today.
Ivkovic said that last night at around 6:00 p.m., an unannounced meeting of citizens took place in front of the REC building on Kralja Milana Street, at which several political representatives of the Serbia Against Violence coalition addressed the crowd.
“From their speech it was possible to grasp the further development of events,” Ivkovic said, adding that the riots that broke out in front of the Belgrade City Assembly only confirmed the awareness of the police and security services, with whom representatives of Serbia Against Violence, according to him, met December 12 and 16.
The head of the Police Department, Ivica Ivkovic, accused the Serbia Against Violence coalition of organizing riots in front of the Belgrade City Assembly last night. “After almost three hours of detention, at about 21:50, legal intervention from the Ministry of Internal Affairs followed. “Contrary to some media reports, the police did not attack anyone, but used coercive measures to restore broken public order and peace,” Ivkovic said.
The opposition hoped to deprive the ruling party of its majority and gain control of Belgrade. But the official results, which opposition officials immediately called fraudulent, showed that the opposition failed to achieve any of its goals. In response, it organized daily protests. Seven oppositionists went on hunger strike. “Vučić stole thousands of votes,” Marinika Tepic, one of the hunger strikers, said at Sunday’s protest.
The opposition alliance “Serbia Against Violence” announced serious violations of electoral legislation in the elections to the Belgrade City Council. Since then, hundreds of SPN supporters have rallied outside the State Election Commission in Belgrade.
The Election Commission announced Wednesday that the election will be repeated in about 30 polling stations out of 8,000 nationwide. Germany said allegations of election irregularities were “unacceptable” for a country hoping to join the EU. At the same time, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic thanked the Russian intelligence services:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv18YJZil60
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