Serbia Police collide with protesters calling for early elections

Serbian police collided with a huge crowd of anti -government protesters requiring early elections and ends at President Alexandar Vucic’s 12-year rule in the capital Belgrade.

A sea of ​​about 140,000 protesters have gathered in the city, the greatest turnout in recent months, as demonstrations led by students have put pressure on the populist government. “We want elections!” The crowd chants.

Dozens have been arrested, with riots noticed tear gas and stunning grenades.

President Vucic has accused protesters calling for the choice of being part of a foreign conspiracy trying to usurp his country. “They wanted to download Serbia and they failed,” he wrote on his Instagram page.

On Friday, five people were arrested, accused of plotting the government, according to a statement by the Serbian Supreme Court in Belgrade.

Following the clashes, police minister strongly condemned the violence of protesters and said the responsible would be arrested.

Months of protests Throughout the country – including the exclusion of the university – they shook Vuchic, whose second term ended in 2027, when there was also a parliamentary election.

The 37 -year -old Sweet Loganovic, a farmer from the town of Sid to the north, said on Saturday that she had come to support students.

“The institutions are usurped and … there is a lot of corruption. The election is the solution, but I don’t think he (Vucic) will want to go calm,” she told Reuters.

Previously, the president refused Snap elections. Its coalition, led by a progressive party, occupies 156 out of 250 parliamentary places.

Opponents of G -Nuchic accuse him and his allies of links to organized crime, corruption, violence against rivals, and restriction of media freedoms they deny.

He maintains close ties with Russia and Serbia – an EU membership candidate – did not join the regime of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

Protests of students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on November 1 in Collapse on the roof of the station of new sad railway stationS Protesters blame corruption for disaster.

The incident already has forced the former Prime Minister to resignS

As the protest on Saturday ended, the organizers played a statement in front of the crowd, calling for the Serbians to “take freedom in their own hands” and give them a “green light”.

“The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to respond to the demands and prevent escalation,” the organizers said in an Instagram statement after the rally.

“Instead, they chose violence and repression against people. Any radicalization of the situation is their responsibility.”