Despite resistance
Europride parade moves through Belgrade
Around 1,000 people took part in the Europride parade in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Saturday. photo
© Gregor Mayer/dpa
The Serbian government wanted to prevent the Europride in Belgrade. But around 1000 people don’t let themselves be deterred and end up moving through the city in a good mood.
The Europride parade was celebrated in Belgrade to the displeasure of the government and authorities. Around 1000 participants demonstrated on Saturday in partly pouring rain for the rights of lesbians, gays and other members of the LGBTIQ* community. The police shielded the march route from far-right and ultra-clerical counter-demonstrators, who were outnumbered, with barricades.
Originally, the rainbow parade was supposed to go through half of the city center, but the Ministry of the Interior deviated from the practice of previous years and banned the event. On Saturday, the Serbian administrative court rejected a complaint by the organizers against the decision of the Ministry of the Interior.
Participants face fines
The public prosecutor threatened the participants of a potentially “illegal demonstration” with large fines. The organizers informed the Ministry of the Interior about the significantly shortened route. The authorities did not respond until the parade began.
The Interior Ministry had also banned the rallies of the ultra-right Pride opponents. Even before the march began, the police arrested 31 people for disturbing public order, the Interior Ministry said. No further details were given. Several dozen opponents of the Pride march demonstrated during the march. Apart from the cordons, they were unmolested by the police.
Attack by right-wing extremists
After the Pride ended, a group of right-wing extremists attacked ten participants who were returning to their hotel. Two of them needed medical attention, reported journalist Idro Seferi, an employee of Deutsche Welle’s Albanian service, on his Facebook page.
Pride marches have been held in Belgrade since 2014 without incident. This year, Belgrade was the first city in south-eastern Europe to be awarded the right to host a Europride. Several MEPs and the federal government’s queer commissioner, Sven Lehmann (Greens), took part. “The Serbian community has not been intimidated by the nationalist and Christian-Orthodox protests, nor by the Serbian government’s lurching course,” he said on Sunday. The government had hesitated until the very end to make a clear commitment to protecting and protecting the right to freedom of assembly. “The violent attacks after the Pride march must be clarified as well as possible misconduct by police forces.”
President Vucic for cancellation
At the end of August, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the Pride would be canceled or postponed. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the right-wing nationalist has oriented himself more closely to Russia than before. In this sense, he also seeks closeness to the ultra-conservative and pro-Russian Serbian Orthodox Church. Right-wing extremists and clerical circles have organized so-called anti-Pride processions in Belgrade in recent weeks.
The English abbreviation LGBTIQ* stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans people, queer and intersex people. The asterisk is a placeholder for additional identities and genders.