Serbia: new clashes between anti -corruption demonstrators and police

Clashes have opposed thousands of demonstrators hostile to the government and the police on Friday in Belgrade, on the fourth day of tensions raising fears of a firmer repression of the anti -corruption protest in progress for several months in Serbia.

After several evenings of clashes marked by dozens of wounded and arrests, supporters of the nationalist president Aleksandar Vucic again faced in a tense climate to demonstrators gathered in the capital.

L schools gases and deafening grenades were then employed towards the anti-power demonstrators, noted an AFP journalist.

The demonstrations have been regular in this Balkan country since the collapse in November 2024 of a concrete awning at Novi Sad station (North). The tragedy, which had left 16 dead, was quickly attributed to corruption by the demonstrators.

The demonstrations, led by the students, were so far generally peaceful. They take place across the country and have brought together up to several hundred thousand people. The situation has been won this week when groups of power supporters, often masked and armed with batons or pyrotechnic devices, attacked protesters.

The two camps accuse that the situation degenerates. “I do not want to live in a country under police repression,” said Zeljko AFP, a 46 -year -old protester in front of government buildings on Friday in Belgrade.

A few hundred meters further, dozens of supporters of power, in black t-shirts, were gathered and targeted the demonstrators with green lasers. “They beat people and protect criminals, with footbeds. I came to say that we will not accept that, ”said Zeljko, who did not give his last name, about them.

Police have arrested dozens of demonstrators in recent days, especially during the ransacking of premises of the Serbian Progressive Party of the President (SNS, Nationalists) in Novi Sad.

Opposition elected officials and anti -corruption activists accused supporters of the power of violence, sharing images of heavily injured demonstrators.

Some videos broadcast online also show the police hitting unarmed demonstrators with their batons. The police have rejected these accusations, claiming to have been attacked by the protesters, with more than 120 agents injured in recent days.

“All those who have spent in recent days to spread lies on the brutality of the police are expected to be explained on these figures,” the Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic told the press on Friday. The president, who regularly describes the anti-corruption protesters as “terrorists”, still implicated them in the violence of the last days.

“We are completely helpless because the police are on the side of the criminals,” said Nevena, 52, who demonstrated on Friday. “They took the state hostage”.

Under pressure from the street in recent months, the government has been reworked, the Prime Minister replaced and several former ministers have been arrested and charged.

Since May, demonstrators are claiming early elections, which President Vucic, re -elected in 2022 for a five -year term, refuses, denouncing a foreign plot aimed at overthrowing the power in place.

Aleksandar Vucic is a close partner of the Russian president Vladimir Putin. His country, which refuses to sanction Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, is at the same time candidate for entering the European Union, an essential economic partner.