Tens of thousands are demonstrating again in Serbia against the authoritarian President Vucic. He had given up his post as head of the governing party SNS today – but remains president of the Balkan country.
In the Serbian capital of Belgrade, tens of thousands have again taken to the streets against the violence in the country and the policies of the authoritarian President Alexandar Vucic. The participants in the rally gathered in front of the Parliament in the center of the Serbian capital and then formed a human chain around the nearby headquarters of state television RTS. The demonstrators accuse the broadcaster of hardly letting non-government voices have their say.
This is the fourth protest in a row after a 13-year-old student shot dead nine classmates and a security guard in a Belgrade school in early May. A day later, a 21-year-old shot people in a village near Belgrade, killing eight of them. The two acts of violence, which are not directly related, deeply shocked Serbian society.
Vucic relinquishes party leadership
Vucic had resigned from his post as head of the ruling party just hours earlier. A “different approach is needed to bring together a larger number of forces of those who want to fight for the victory of a patriotic, successful Serbia,” Vucic said at a party conference of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Despite the resignation, the 53-year-old remains president of the Balkan country. Vucic won last year’s parliamentary elections with the SNS in a landslide victory. However, the party has repeatedly been accused of corruption.