{"id":349217,"date":"2025-08-16T13:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349217\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:19:10","slug":"violent-clashes-escalate-at-anti-government-protests-in-serbia-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349217\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent clashes escalate at anti-government protests in Serbia | Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti-government protests in Serbia<\/a> escalated on Friday night amid reports of police brutality and excessive use of force. It was the fourth day of unrest in cities across the Balkan country, including in the capital, Belgrade, where police fired teargas at demonstrators and tried to separate rival groups of protesters.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people have been injured in the violent clashes, while hundreds have been detained over the past week, as nine months of largely peaceful anti-corruption and pro-democracy protests have reached boiling point.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, Serbia\u2019s president, Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, said the state was stronger than any protest and praised the police for their conduct during the latest demonstrations. \u201cThis is the phase of despair and helplessness, when you have nothing more to offer the citizens except beatings, clubs, and all the rest,\u201d he told the national TV broadcaster RTS.<\/p>\n

Serbia\u2019s interior minister, Ivica Da\u010di\u0107, denied that police had used excessive force, instead blaming demonstrators for allegedly attacking the officers.<\/p>\n

Videos on social media showed police with shields and batons beating up protesters as flares lit up the streets. The rallies on Friday were held under the slogan: \u201cLet\u2019s show them we are not a punching bag.\u201d Demonstrators reportedly threw rocks and eggs at police, who then charged at them in the wide boulevard in front of the Serbian government headquarters.<\/p>\n

The clashes were between riot police, anti-government protesters, and Vu\u010di\u0107 loyalists. The pro-government demonstrators have been accused of hurling fireworks, rocks and glass bottles at anti-government protesters.<\/p>\n

In the northern city of Novi Sad on Thursday night, anti-government protesters attacked the headquarters of the ruling Serbian Progressive party, or SNS, chanting \u201che is finished\u201d as they smashed windows and covered walls with red paint.<\/p>\n

The student-led protests began in November last year after the collapse of part of the outdoor roof at Novi Sad railway station killed 16 people. Many blamed the tragedy on entrenched corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

Vigils for the victims swiftly escalated into mass demonstrations, with hundreds of thousands of Serbians demanding an investigation into the tragedy, as well as early elections.<\/p>\n

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The protests have rocked the Serbian government, causing Milo\u0161 Vu\u010devi\u0107, the prime minister at the time of the Novi Sad disaster, to resign and the end of his cabinet. Yet Vu\u010di\u0107 remains in power, despite accusations that he has stifled democratic freedoms while allowing corruption to flourish.<\/p>\n

Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe<\/a>, wrote on X on Friday that he was \u201cconcerned\u201d by the violent protests in Serbia. \u201cI call for calm and respect of the right to peaceful assembly. Serbian authorities must uphold Council of Europe standards. The rule of law and respect for human rights must prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-government protests in Serbia escalated on Friday night amid reports of police brutality and excessive use of force.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-349217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115038647995915214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}