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Riots in Belgrade

24sata / YouTube

In the cities of Serbia in two days of unrest that accompanied the protests against the return of quarantine measures, injured 118 police officers and was arrested 153 of the alleged offender, declared the Director of police of Serbia Vladimir Rebić.

According to him, “and last night the citizens witnessed incredible violence, and not only in Belgrade, but in Novi Sad, NIS, Kragujevac”. He called the violence unacceptable and promised that the police will do everything to stop it, reports “Interfax”.

Vladimir Rebić added that “inflicted great material damage suffered not only private but also public property.”

“They (protesters) broke cars, broke Windows and storefronts, set fire to garbage containers. In Novi Sad broken glass in the building of the broadcasting company RTV Vojvodina, set on fire the entrance to the building of the city administration. In NIS and Kragujevac destroyed police cars,” – said Rebić.

Riots occurred in Belgrade and several other Serbian cities at night on Wednesday and repeated at night on Thursday after President Aleksandar vučić publicly admitted that Friday evenings will return a curfew. On Thursday, the President stressed that the decision is still pending and that it is important to protect not only human health but also the economy, however, the protests continued.

Participants of the street protests say that a society has no confidence in the government. “Vucic has announced new lockdown on the weekends, although just a few weeks ago we had elections, it was football matches, public meetings – all quarantine measures were lifted, and then as soon as the elections were held, I suddenly found that the situation has changed completely and that kovid came back, said “Russian service BBC” one of the protesters, to the sound of Velebit. – As a result people do not trust the authorities and don’t trust the doctors, which is especially dangerous”.

The interior Minister of Serbia Nebojsa Stefanovic has accused rioters in the intention to displace the legally elected government.

Vucic on the eve of the accused in the incident of violence to foreign intelligence services, citing data from the Serbian security services. According to him, the organizers of the riots at the Parliament of Serbia in the night of Wednesday hoped to weaken the position of the Serbian leadership before the talks on Kosovo in the EU.

In France on July 9, is scheduled to meet Serbian leader with the President of France Emanuele a Macron. Next day online summit of the EU leadership, Germany, France, Serbia and the breakaway Republic of Kosovo. On July 12, scheduled the first meeting between the Serbian President and Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Kosovo Hoti Abdulahim in Brussels for the first time after the freezing of dialogue in 2018, reports RIA “Novosti”.

President Vucic also said that the clashes with police and attempts to seize the building of the Parliament (Assembly) made on Tuesday, the radical nationalists and the fans of various conspiracy theories. “These people are not talking about the coronavirus, they were talking about some kind of betrayal, about immigrants, about 5G network, and that the Earth was flat. And these people were there not for the first time, just this time they were more aggressive,” he said.

Note that the policy Vucic displeased many, and not only nationalists, who constantly accuse him of intent to officially recognize Kosovo in exchange for the prospects of integration into the European Union. Serbian nationalists were supported by Russian nationalists, and the official Moscow is unhappy with the rapprochement of Serbia and the European Union.

Opponents in Serbia, Vucic also accused him of authoritarian methods of government. Parliamentary elections June 21, boycotted much of the opposition, and several parties have announced this decision last year. In the end, the coalition led by the Serbian progressive party Vucic won the election three-quarters of seats: 188 out of 250.

Concern about the events in Serbia expressed in the European Commission. The EC representative Ana Pisonero called the priority measures to protect the health of the population, but warned that the restrictions must not impair the fundamental liberties and should be kept to what is strictly necessary.

Meanwhile, the situation with the spread of the coronavirus in Serbia remains difficult. Serbia imposed a quarantine in a pandemic in mid-March, and cancelled them on may 7. Recently, however, the number of identified infections, according to official figures, has gone up again. In the beginning of this week saw a record number of deaths per day from COVID-19 – died 13.