2023-05-27 20:34:20
Thousands of rally participants gathered in Belgrade on Saturday for the fourth “Serbia Against Violence” protest. As in the past, this was once more organized by five pro-European opposition parties.
Even though President Aleksandar Vucic had offered the opposition a dialogue at the rally of his supporters on Friday evening in order to solve open questions, the first reactions from the opposition ranks were rather reserved. The authorities should first meet the demands formulated at the first protest once morest violence on May 9, following which they can talk regarding more, it said.
Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and the head of the BIA intelligence service, Aleksandar Vulin, are being asked to resign. But the list of demands also includes the withdrawal of frequency licenses for two TV channels close to the regime – Pink and Happy – which the opposition believes are promoting hatred and violence with their programs.
The protests were triggered by two shootings in Belgrade and Mladenovac at the beginning of May, in which 18 people – mostly elementary school students and young people – were killed and 20 injured. The Ministry of the Interior then asked citizens to hand in their illegal weapons. According to official information, more than 50,000 weapons have been handed over to date. However, the opposition is convinced that individual regime-controlled media also make a significant contribution to violence in society.
President Vucic has so far shown no willingness to meet the opposition’s demands, although he decided on Friday to make a small cosmetic correction. The TV station Pink is supposed to stop its reality shows, which are known for violence. With a human chain around the building of the public TV broadcaster RTS, the opposition wanted to persuade the broadcaster to report on the ongoing protests.
According to pro-government media, Vucic had gathered over 200,000 supporters at his rally on Friday, a figure that observers strongly doubted. After all, a lot more people seemed to have gathered at the opposition protest on Saturday.
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