Thousands attend pro-Serbia government rally after months of unrest

Tens of hundreds of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s supporters have held a rally in Belgrade following months of unrest throughout the nation.

A monitoring organisation mentioned round 55,000 folks had gathered in entrance of the Nationwide Meeting. Regardless of some Vucic followers travelling from neighbouring international locations, attendance was considerably decrease than final month’s large anti-government protest.

There have been common demonstrations in Serbia since November when the collapse of a railway station canopy in the city of Novi Sad killed 15 folks, triggering widespread public anger.

A lot of Serbians blamed the incident on alleged corruption and corner-cutting by Vucic’s Progressive Occasion.

The Serbian chief had promoted the rally on Saturday because the launch of a “Motion for the Individuals and the State”, which might “save” Serbia from forces working to “destroy” the nation.

In a speech on the occasion, he referred to as on prosecutors to work to revive order and peace.

He claimed the student-led protests had been threatening Serbia’s peace and stability, accusing attendees of being paid by “overseas intelligence companies”.

“Sure overseas powers can not bear to see a free, unbiased and sovereign Serbia”, he mentioned, with out clarifying which “powers” he was referring to.

Vucic additionally criticised nationwide broadcaster RTS, describing it as a “key participant” in an tried “color revolution”.

After the Novi Unhappy incident final November, some blamed what had occurred on greater than a decade of governing by the Progressive Occasion of Vucic – who carefully related himself with the station’s prior renovation.

It was thought-about a key a part of the federal government’s flagship infrastructure mission – the high-speed line from Belgrade to Budapest in Hungary.

The demonstrations that adopted the catastrophe noticed attendees use the slogan “corruption kills”.

They claimed that the opaque procurement procedures the federal government used for infrastructure initiatives had enriched a couple of favoured contractors whereas placing public security in danger.

Regardless of a number of resignations – and Vucic’s insistence that he was going nowhere – protests grew.

Final month, a whole lot of hundreds of individuals descended on Serbia’s capital.

An unbiased monitor estimated 325,000 – if no more – had gathered, making it Serbia’s largest protest ever.