Belgrade, Dec. 24 (EFE) – Belgrade experienced a violent night of anti-government protests on Sunday, with 35 people arrested and two police officers seriously injured as the opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) tried to force its way into the capital’s City Hall.
The opposition has been demanding a rerun of the Dec. 17 parliamentary elections citing allegations of vote-rigging by domestic and international observers.
Sunday’s protest was the seventh against alleged electoral fraud in favor of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) party of Serbian populist President Aleksandar Vučić, and the largest and most tense so far.
Protesters in Belgrade shouted slogans such as “thieves” and “we don’t concede victory” as they tried to gain access to the interior of the city hall.
The demonstrators smashed the glass of the main door of the building, where a contingent of riot police was stationed, firing tear gas outside.
“Open the gates!” they shouted at the City Hall guards, while others hurled insults at Vučić.
The SPN coalition was born out of a series of mass protests in May 2023 following a school shooting in Belgrade. It includes the social-democratic Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), the center-right Serbian People’s Movement (NPS) and the center-left Democratic Party (DS), among others.
The SPN, the main opposition party, does not recognize the results of the elections and demands that they be annulled.
In recent days, they have organized protests to “defend the votes,” and several SPN activists are on hunger strike at the RIK headquarters.
The Serbian president assured that the Balkan country’s authorities would defend institutions and preserve peace, and accused the opposition of violence.
“There is no revolution, they will not achieve anything. We are trying to make our reaction lukewarm, peaceful,” Vučić said in a statement to the press.
According to Vučić, 35 protesters were arrested and will remain in jail for the time being, while two police officers were seriously injured in the clashes.
“Tonight there was an attempt to occupy state institutions by force. We will see how the prosecutors will qualify it,” the president said after a meeting of Serbia’s National Security Council.
The Balkan country held elections a week ago for the national parliament, the Vojvodina regional assembly and municipalities in 65 cities, including Belgrade, where the SPN expected to win and believes its victory was “stolen” through manipulation.
According to the official results, the SNS won the parliamentary elections with 47% of the votes, twice as much as the opposition SPN coalition.
The SNS won the local elections in Belgrade by a small margin, and the formation of a local government remains uncertain due to the lack of a clear majority, so Vučić left open the possibility of new elections in the capital.
The authorities denied the opposition’s allegations of rigging and said that the institutions would investigate the allegations.
Vučić on Sunday accused SPN leaders of “brutal pressure on the institutions” with the aim of “changing the electoral will”. EFE sn/ics
