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15 hours ago
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Several hundred student protesters have blocked Serbia’s public television station building in Belgrade as tensions soar days before a large rally planned for the weekend that is billed as the climax of months of anti-government demonstrations.
The students, who first blocked the TV building in the capital’s city centre late on Monday, gathered again in their hundreds on Tuesday after announcing that their blockade would last for at least 22 hours. A similar blockade was organised in the country’s second-largest city, Novi Sad.
University students in Serbia are behind almost daily rallies that started after a concrete canopy crashed down at a railway station in Novi Sad last November, killing 15 people. The protests have rocked populist rule of the president, Aleksandar Vučić, and his firm grip on power.
During the blockade on Monday evening, riot police briefly used batons against the crowd, which tried to block one of the entrances to the TV building with metal security fences.
The students blame the public broadcaster for biased reporting and siding with Vučić and the government during the demonstrations. The Serbian president was the guest of the main TV news bulletin on Monday evening.
During the interview, Vučić insulted the student-led protests, warning that security officers would use force against people at the rally planned for Saturday. He added that the nationwide demonstrations would never cause him to step down.
“You will have to kill me if you want to replace me,” he said.
The TV reporter who interviewed Vučić called the protesting students “a mob”, which the president appeared to approve of.
The interview followed a spat between Vučić and the station, RTS, in which the president described a reporter covering the protests as “an imbecile”. He later apologised for the remark, but said RTS reporters were a “disgrace to their profession”.
The station issued a statement denouncing the blockade on Tuesday. “Forcibly preventing RTS employees from coming to their workplaces represents a dangerous step into open conflicts with unpredictable consequences,” it said.
On the same day, Vučić met Donald Trump Jr, the US president’s eldest son, who had just arrived in Belgrade. The purpose of his visit was not immediately known. Vučić is a vocal supporter of the US president.
Many in Serbia believe that the roof collapse in Novi Sad last November was caused by poor renovation work fuelled by government corruption. Authorities have indicted 16 people over the disaster.
The students have insisted on full accountability for the tragedy, a call that has garnered widespread support among citizens who are largely disillusioned with politicians and have lost trust in state institutions.
Student-led rallies have drawn tens of thousands of people, becoming among the biggest ever in the Balkan country, which has a long history of anti-government protests. Vučić has described the rallies as a western-orchestrated ploy to oust him from power.
Vučić has claimed that protesters “will try to achieve something with violence and that will be the end” this Saturday. Many demonstrators “will end up behind bars accused of criminal acts,” he added.
Student-led protests in the past months have mostly been peaceful, while incidents were recorded when opponents drove their cars into protest blockades or attacked the protesters.
Vučić and his rightwing Serbian Progressive party have held a firm grip on power in Serbia for more than a decade, facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms despite formally seeking EU entry for Serbia.
