An Indication of Harder Times

Protest against "Miredita, Good Day" festival in Belgrade, June 27 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Last week, three major events marked Serbian political life, each connected in some way with the regime spearheaded by Aleksandar Vucic. First the authorities banned the holding of the traditional “Mirëdita, Dobar Dan” (meaning “Good Day” in Albanian and Serbian) festival, using a protest rally of rightists as the reason; then mass demonstrations were held in Loznica against lithium mining, which the regime reacted to immediately, and finally, there was the attempted murder of a gendarme securing the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade, which the authorities labeled “a terrorist act.” In the background of those events, Belgrade got a new government that is again led by Aleksandar Sapic.