A good 15,000 people demonstrated again on Saturday evening in Belgrade against the government of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. The Protestants left for the fifth Saturday in a row and despite the snowstorm on the street. The participants marched to the headquarters of the state television station RTS, the Vucic faithful strictly control.
The protest was under the motto "One in five millions". The slogan alludes to a statement by the authoritarian ruling Vucic that he would not bow to the demands of the demonstrators even if they were raised by five million people. Serbia has seven million inhabitants.
Critics accuse Vucic of authoritarian rule and suppression of the opposition
Since the beginning of December, government opponents in Belgrade take to the streets. The original cause of the demonstrations was the brutal attack on the leader of the Serbian Left, Borko Stefanovic, in late November in the southern Serbian city of Krusevac.
The perpetrators are still unknown. The original arrested suspects were released shortly before the turn of the year for lack of evidence. Vucic condemned the attack - the opposition continues to hold the president responsible. They accuse him of contributing to a climate of violence in the country with his aggressive rhetoric against critics and oppositionists.
The demonstrations are the first major protests in Serbia since the spring of 2017, when thousands of mostly young Serbs took to the streets following Vucic's election victory. His critics accuse him of authoritarian rule and muzzling the opposition, the media and civil society.