Thousands gathered in Belgrade in front of the National Assembly for the latest anti-government rally on June 24, marching once more to demand action from the government and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic after two mass shootings in early May. 

This is the eighth time demonstrators have taken to the streets of Belgrade since the first rally on May 8, with demonstrations this time occurring concurrently in 10 other locations, including Nis, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Subotica.

Numbers in Belgrade were lower than in previous rallies — possibly because of the protests in other cities — and there was no sign of the radicalisation talked of at previous protests. However, despite the lower numbers the crowd didn’t seem defeatist. 

The students will have their say

The protests started when the shootings — which resulted in the deaths of 18 individuals — led to widespread discontent among the Serbian population but have since broadened as protesters raise a wider range of issues. The protesters accuse the president and the ruling party of fostering a culture of violence through the media and are asking for the dismantling of the responsible regulatory bodies, and a ban on reality shows and journalistic outlets that print fake news and promote violence.

The June 24 rally started with a march by a group of students in front of the National Assembly in downtown Belgrade. The students held banners that said “The students will not keep quiet” and “Stop the violence”.  As classical music played, people could be heard talking of the constant change of pace in the protests as something good, perhaps trying to remain hopeful. 

Soon enough, there was an address from the master of ceremonies, radio host Smiljan Banjac, but it was somewhat less invigorating than the previous one when the call for “radicalisation” was made. There were no plans for blockades at this week’s protest. 

Banjac announced that the students will have the main say during the evening.

Mia Puric, a first-year student of the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, said that the protests gave the students hope to fight for their own rights, and said students have raised the question of unpaid internships. 

Blagoje Rozgic from the Mathematical Faculty spoke after Puric, saying that he doesn’t want his younger siblings to go to school in fear after pupils were gunned down in a Belgrade school by one of their classmates, and telling the crowd that the students stand with them.  

Before the march officially commenced Banjac said once more: “If a hundred thousand is not enough for them [the government], Serbia will stop!”

He also talked of the situation in Kosovo where tensions have increased in the Serb-dominated north in recent weeks: “We hear the cry of our people in Kosovo and Metohija, and they do not have the support of this country, they do not have support from this government.” 

Peaceful atmosphere

The route started down the familiar Kneza Milosa, but this time the protesters took a turn toward Slavija, exploring new city spaces that they rarely experience on foot. The final destination was Autokomanda, a loop on the international motorway that was blocked in some of the previous protests. 

There was a positive atmosphere, but there was no trace of the radicalisation that was announced the previous week. 

bne IntelliNews asked Radomir Lazovic, from the opposition Ne da(vi)mo Beograd party, what would happen if the protest were to be successful. 

“We can then sit down and talk … [and see] how to get out of this crisis. The current government doesn’t have legitimacy, it doesn’t have the support of the people. That is why we must go to the polls. We need to have a general election, and certainly, one in Belgrade, because they don’t have the support of the people here.”

Asked about the current situation in Kosovo, Lazovic responded: “I sadly don’t have enough information on what is going on right now, but I feel like the Serbs and Albanians both suffer from the raised tensions.”

He later told an N1 reporter that one of the reasons for the smaller number of people is that there are protests throughout Serbia, and that the protest could build from there further. “We have shown how many people in Belgrade are willing to protest,” he said. 

Among the protesters, bne IntelliNews spotted former prime minister Zoran Zivkovic, who blended in with the protesters in a rather inconspicuous way, aside from a “Serbia” polo shirt and a walking cane that gave him some trouble as he was mounting the road barriers at Autokomanda. “Do you need some help?” asked one fellow protester. “I am beyond help, madam,” the former prime minister quipped. 

Bigger things to come

bne IntelliNews interviewed Vuk (28) a student of Norwegian from the Faculty of Philology, who was there with a group of friends. 

He believes that if the requests of the protesters are fulfilled then that would be a “small but significant victory for the people”, and the next step would involve radicalisation. He feels that the series of protests are “the beginning of something bigger”, and that with the protests spreading to other cities, he hopes, “the consciousness of the current political situation is formed”. 

One of the protesters had drawn his own version of the famous Tiananmen Square image, the Serbian version depicting a big bad wolf driving the tank painted with the names Pink, Happy and RTS, the TV stations that have been criticised the most for propaganda and glorifying violence. 

He wasn’t sure if the vision was completely clear to all interested parties. In front of the tank was a sheep with two shopping bags, in the role of the oppressed citizen. 

“Aren’t sheep gullible?” bne IntelliNews asked.   

“Well,” he answered, “maybe I didn’t think through all the angles, but I think it’s pretty clear who the wolf is [Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic].

“He is continuing the same politics as [late dictator Slobodan] Milosevic, and after everything that we’ve been through we are the bad guys in Croatia, and we are going to be the bad guys in Kosovo.”

With the crowd steadily dissipating as the night set in, the atmosphere begged the question, can the protest be successful? 

“Only if the whole of Serbia stops. A general strike.” Still, he thinks, the protest needs to carry on. “We need to help, even if we don’t believe”.