Protests in Serbia Demand Action on Culture of Violence After Mass Shootings

Following back-to-back mass shootings last month that claimed 18 lives, protests in Serbia have escalated and become the largest street demonstrations seen in Belgrade, the capital, since the toppling of Serbia’s president, Slobodan Milosevic, in 2000. Every week, the “Serbia Against Violence” movement has gained increasing support since early May. Government critics accuse Aleksandar Vucic, the country’s strongman leader, of promoting a “culture of violence” through loyal media and have demanded that senior law enforcement officials are removed from post and that broadcasting licences are withdrawn from television stations that promote violent reality shows and ignore opposition politicians. These demands were echoed by Zoran Kesic, a satirist and television presenter, who told protesters, “Enough with violence, enough with hatred and intimidation, enough with humiliation”.

The protests have now become a larger protest against the increasingly authoritarian rule of Mr. Vucic, who has been ruling Serbia for nearly ten years, initially as prime minister and then as president. Mr. Vucic, who began his political career as a radical nationalist during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, has spent the recent years trying to paint himself as a pro-European leader who is eager for Serbia to join the European Union, while at the same time refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

During the fifth and largest protest, many people chanted for Vucic to resign, while others released helium balloons carrying a banner with the message “Vucic Go Away” under a large picture of the country’s president. However, the president—who won re-election in a landslide victory last year—has refused to step down, dismissing the protests as a “political stunt” by his opponents.

This protest in contrast to a violent protest 10 years ago that forced the resignation of Milosevic, under whom Vucic served as a minister, remained peaceful with the exception of a few clashes between protesters and pro-government agitators. While Vucic has weathered large street protests in the past, none have been as large as this. The anti-violence protests are continuing to grow in size, unlike previous rounds of street demonstrations spearheaded by opposition parties and disrupted by government supporters.

Ivan Ivanovic, a 48-year-old protester, stated that the protests were only growing in size, noting that “the motivation is very strong—in a sad way. This is not about the opposition. This is people who are fed up.”