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hooligans, calling hooligans protesters and protesters hooligans. This made real protesters and their supporters on social networks angry, and they started calling on people to distance themselves from the hooligans and not let them ruin their fight for democracy.
Spotlight on police actions
International media have been reporting mainly about brutality of the Serbian police and not about why a peaceful protest by people worried for their material existence if the new lockdown kills their jobs turned into violent demonstrations and clashes between police and protesters.
For many Serbian citizens too, what hurts the most is the police brutality, even though the president says they were only doing what police in every other country would do: protecting state institutions and property. He claimed the police behaved with dignity in the face of “unbelievable pressure” and only responded when protesters burst into the parliament building.
However, this has been changing as the violent groups keep attacking police but also other protesters who want to show their opinion peacefully. On the third day of protests, which was quiet and civilised, minor incidents occurred mainly led by far-righters who were calling for a violent rebellion. They dominated on July 10 and ‘stole’ the protest from real protesters.
Criminal elements and foreign powers
Speaking after the first night of violence, Vucic said that the protests were politically influenced not only by criminal elements but also by foreign powers, specifically by their intelligence services, in his statement to the nation on July 8.
The president claimed the involvement of foreign powers who want to weaken Serbia’s international position shortly before his two-day trip to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron. This included a video conference hosted by Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, designated to symbolically restart the Belgrade-
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Pristina negotiation process. Prime Minister of Kosovo Avdullah Hoti as well as the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell took part in the event too.
According to Vucic, those who were doing this were extremists and their protest wasn’t against the measures to contain the coronavirus but against migrants, a deal with Kosovo, 5G networks and government itself.
“Last night, even though some tried
to justify it with the story about coronavirus, we witnessed an aggressive
Russian interference suspected
Suspicions that Vucic was referring to Russian interference were backed up by reports from the protests.
A title in a story from pro-government tabloid Kurir read: “Anti-EU forces, led by pro-Russian far-righters, organise destruction of Belgrade”. “Behind the violent protest in front of the parliament are anti-European forces that are close to Russian far-righters. That became clear immediately since main heads of the protest were exactly pro-Russian far-righter – former member of the Dveri movement Srdjan Nogo, current leader
“For many Serbian citizens too, what hurts the most is the police brutality, even though the president says they were only doing what police in every other country would do”
political protest not long after the protests had started. Illegal, not announced to the police,” Vucic said in his statement to the nation on July 8.
He added that even if there are no doubts that, at the beginning, some gathered believing they were there because of the coronavirus and frustration because of the potential tightening of measures, individuals with far-right orientation, from pro- fascist organisations, attacked the Serbian parliament and entered its building.
“That political rally was well organised. Part of our security services failed. We saw later that there were influences not only from criminal elements but also international ones, aka, foreign intelligence services. Those are internal tasks that our service will have to work on in a significantly more serious way than it was doing until yesterday.”
He didn’t specify what foreign countries could have had their spies at the protest but added that there were also people from ex-Yugoslavia that are known for their criminal acts who took part in riots and attacks on the Serbian police.
of Dveri Bosko Obradovic, member
of the Alliance for Serbia and openly pro-Russian adviser of former president Boris Tadic, Mladjan Djordjevic,” the daily reported.
Then there was the video of a female Russian ‘tourist’ talking to a tv reporter during the protests. The woman approached the N1 TV crew and started complaining that a cop with a dog hit her on the cheek with a nightstick. She called him a “betrayer” and said there was no reason for anyone to defend him from the people that were stoning him. The journalist (who reported phenomenally despite all the tear gas) asked her why she was there.
“Because I’m defending justice! I’m protesting, yes. Because what’s going on is not fair or humane, and they say that they have European laws. There is no Europe here, this is dictatorship. I went through all that in Russia. I know what is a dictator ... He behaves like a real dictator. I mean, Vucic,” she responded in decent Serbian with a strong Russian accent.
The journalist asked her to explain her reference to Russia and she said that in the 1990s they went through