\nUPDATES: This article was updated to include comments given to Euractiv by Rasmus Nordqvist MEP.\n<\/p>\n
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\nThe European Green Party has denounced threats from Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, who said he would prosecute two senior party officials who took part in an anti-government demonstration on Friday night.<\/b>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nSerbian police forcefully dispersed thousands of protestors from the grounds of the university in Novi Sad, with Serbian media reporting the use of tear gas, batons, and stun grenades.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nRasmus Nordqvist, a Danish Green MEP, and Vula Tsetsi, the co-chair of the umbrella organisation of European Green parties, had joined the protests after appearing alongside leaders of the Serbian Green-Left Front at the national parliament.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIn a televised late-night address after the police operation, Vu\u010di\u0107 lashed out at Nordqvist and Tsetsi, calling them \u201cscum from the European Green Party … that came to support the violence in Novi Sad”, according to a party press release.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI have to tell them that they will be prosecuted in line with the laws of Serbia,\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107 said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nThe European Green Party condemned his comments on Saturday as \u201ccrossing every line of democratic discourse\u201d and undermining rule of law and freedom of speech in Serbia. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nNordqvist called on EU institutions to address what he described as Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s \u201cembrace of authoritarianism\u201d in a country that remains a candidate to join the EU.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n“There is a serious need for a change in the Commission and Council’s approach to him” Nordqvist said to Euractiv. “The citizens of Serbia look at the EU in wonder.”\n<\/p>\n
\nVu\u010di\u0107\u2019s Serbian Progressive Party is an associate member of Europe\u2019s centre-right party family, the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n“The EPP must come clean about having an autocrat in the family,” Nordqvist told Euractiv.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe European Parliament is supposed to debate the “wave of violence and continuous use of force against protesters in Serbia on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
Serbia’s most sustained protest movement since Yugoslav era
\nThe student-led protests broke out last year over local corruption suspected to be behind the collapse of a station roof in Novi Sad that killed 16. They mark the most sustained protest movement in Serbia since the collapse of the Yugoslavian federal state. <\/p>\n
\nProtestors demand early elections and the resignation of Vu\u010di\u0107, who has ruled the country since 2014 \u2013 first as prime minister and then as president \u2013 in an increasingly authoritarian manner.\n<\/p>\n
\nUniversities have been the focal point of the activities, and protestors have occupied almost all universities in Serbia since the start of the demonstrations.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nThe latest clashes at the University of Novi Sad erupted after the institution\u2019s dean forced protestors to clear the faculty of philosophy almost two weeks ago, which they had been occupying for nine months.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nPolice officers intervened on Friday night after protestors who had gathered attacked them with stones and bottles, the interior ministry said, with 42 people being arrested. Protestors have previously accused the authorities of orchestrating violence to justify a heavy-handed crackdown.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n*Magnus Lund Nielsen<\/a> and Eddy Wax<\/a> contributed reporting\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nUPDATES: This article was updated to include comments given to Euractiv by Rasmus Nordqvist MEP.\n<\/p>\n \n(cp)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n