Balkans
In Serbia, demonstrations degenerate into confrontations
Clashes between demonstrators and power supporters made dozens injured on Wednesday and Thursday.
Anti-government demonstrators raise their fists against the Serbian riot police in Belgrade, August 14, 2025.
AFP
The political crisis and the demonstrations that have been shaking Serbia for months degenerated this week into clashes between demonstrators and supporters of the ruling party of President Aleksandar Vucic (SNS), with new scenes of violence on Thursday evening.
Protesters degraded the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS, Nationalists) in Novi Sad (North) on Thursday evening, during new rallies organized in around thirty cities, after clashes the day before that made dozens of injured.
First grouped in front of the premises of the Serbian intelligence agency (BIA), the demonstrators headed for the premises of the SNS nearby. They broke its glass storefront, then threw eggs and painting on the facade, depending on the images broadcast live by the private television channel N1.
“Civil war”
Most of the young men who participated in these violence were hooded. No SNS sympathizer was not in the party premises and the police did not intervene.
In Belgrade, demonstrators gathered in front of the government’s seats and the army staff, before getting closer to the premises of the SNS nearby. But they were held at a distance by an important cord of the anti -fertility police.
The demonstrators then threw pyrotechnic devices against sympathizers of the SNS grouped in front of the premises of the party. The police then pushed the demonstrators, according to the images broadcast by the N1.
After the demonstrations on Wednesday evening, the two camps have mutually accused of wanting to provoke a “civil war”. “I think the objective of power is to intimidate citizens. They want to break this revolt and scare people, “a Belgradois lawyer Aleksandar Petrovic, who joined the demonstrators, told the N1.
Regular events
On Wednesday evening, more than 70 citizens, 27 police officers and seven members of an army elite unit (“Kobre”) -responsible for protecting the highest political leaders -were injured, most of them during violence in Novi Sad, in front of the SNS premises, the Minister of the Interior Dacic said. Police arrested around fifty people, according to the minister.
The demonstrations have been regular in this Balkan country since the collapse in November 2024 of a concrete awning at Novi Sad station. The tragedy, which left 16 dead, was quickly attributed to corruption by the demonstrators.
The president of the country Aleksandar Vucic, who does not officially lead the party, accused the demonstrators of having attacked SNS activists on Wednesday evening. According to the Minister of the Interior, most people injured are SNS supporters.
“We avoided a catastrophic scenario,” said Aleksandar Vucic on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, promising “severe” punishments for violent demonstrators. “We will warn their wish to lead us to a civil war,” he added.
PRIFORS STUDENTS
For students, who are at the head of the protest movement, the roles are overthrown. “Power tried to provoke civil war last night,” he wrote on one of their official accounts on Instagram. They accused the police of having “protected” SNS supporters “who threw stones and pulled pyrotechnic devices against the demonstrators”.
During the demonstration on Wednesday evening in Novi Sad on Wednesday evening, a member of the “Kobre” unit proceeded to a summons, causing the panic of the demonstrators. The incident made noise in the media. He said Thursday at a press conference that he and his colleagues had been attacked and “surrounded” by “a group of nearly one hundred people” and that he had judged that their lives were in danger.
All student manifestations have so far been generally peaceful. They take place across the country and have sometimes brought together several hundred thousand people.
Under pressure, the government was reworked, the Prime Minister replaced, several former ministers were arrested and charged.
Since May, demonstrators have been claiming the early elections, which President Vucic refuses, denouncing a foreign plot aimed at overthrowing the power in place.
At the beginning of August, a group of experts set up by the UN High Commission for Human Rights called on the authorities in Serbia to end that they described as “intensified repression” against activists.
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