Mounted police used teargas and truncheons to disperse a crowd of several thousand protesters gathered outside the Serbian parliament in Belgrade, opposed to the government’s announcement of a new coronavirus lockdown.
President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Tuesday that a new curfew would go into effect on Friday and last over the weekend, after 300 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths – the most since the pandemic began, local media reported.
This prompted an estimated ten thousand people to gather outside the parliament building and demand Vucic’s resignation, starting around 10 pm local time.
After some demonstrators reportedly broke into the building, riot police were deployed and used force to disperse the crowd, including tear gas. At one point, police on horseback charged the demonstrators.
🇷🇸#Belgrade: The crowd outside of the #Serbia|n parliament right now protesting #COVID19 mandates. Earlier hundreds had stormed inside the building before they were driven back by police. pic.twitter.com/8IbxNrT1l3
— The WannabeWonk☦️ (@PotempkinBrain) July 7, 2020
Režim baca suzavac na narod. pic.twitter.com/eh1u3PFE3G
— Boris Malagurski (@malagurski) July 7, 2020
Opposition politicians tried to direct the protests into a revolution against the government, urging all of Serbia to “go to Belgrade, now or never!” and telling people to “seize their freedom.”
Former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic appeared among the demonstrators at one point, before he was told to “go away” and received a slap upside the head.
#BREAKING Serbia
Former-opposition leaders quarreled and received a blow to the head ‼️https://t.co/ItmepTx7I2— srb news (@srbnews0) July 7, 2020
(…) Journalist Boris Malagurski, who has been critical of the government, posted a photo of the protest with the caption “Serbia has risen.” (…)
Serbia imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe starting in mid-March…
Easter was canceled, and the elections scheduled for late April were postponed to June. The state of emergency and the lockdown were lifted on May 6, but masks, social distancing and other mitigation rules have remained in effect.
https://youtu.be/480giWTcElw
Tuesday’s demonstrations were the largest such protests in almost a decade. Observers noted that Serbs have been reluctant to organize mass protests since October 2000, when the so-called ‘color revolution’ led to a change in power. (…)
Source: RT.com
