Analyst: Arguments, Not Arrests, to be Used to Challenge Anti-Vaccination Movement

Djordje Vukadinović/Beta/Miloš Miškov

A political analyst, Djordje Vukadinovic, said on April 3 that the polarization of local public over anti-coronavirus vaccination was just another in a series of rifts that had been systematically generated within Serbian society, suggesting that it's arguments and timely information that should be used against vaccine hesitancy, not arrests.

"If history has taught us anything, it's that bans and arrests cannot solve anything. Quite the contrary, they can only add fuel to the fire. It's largely the government to be blamed for the current atmosphere in Serbian society, but mentality plays a role, too, at least the mentality of the most visible and vocal par of it," Vukadinovic said in a comment for BETA.

According to the Serbian renowned analyst, Serbia's is a "polarized society," where far less sensitive issues than vaccines have fueled passionate debates.

Hundreds of Serbs rallied in Belgrade on April 3 against anti-Covid 19 restrictions, vaccines, closures of businesses and schools in Serbia. The "Protest for Freedom", with Sasa Radulovic's Enough is Enough movement as one of the organizers, started in the Trg Republike Square and ended by the monument to Stefan Nemanja, where they danced a traditional Serbian dance, kolo. The protesters didn't comply with anti-coronavirus rules.