Miletic: No Ban on Pride March

Goran Miletic (Photo: Beta / Dragan Gojic)

One of the organizers of EuroPride 2022 in Belgrade, Goran Miletic, said that a deadline for the authorities to ban a Pride march expires on Sept. 13, at 4 p.m., but that the organizers were not expecting such a decision.

Miletic has said to BETA on Sept. 5 that the government can ban an open-air gathering 96 hours before the actual event, and that based on the talks he had had with the authorities, he expected no ban on the LGBTI march.

“EuroPride 2022 will be held according to plan. As for open-air events, there will be a march and two concerts at the Kalemegdan Fortress, the latter not an issue at all. The march, involving nearly 15,000 people, was planned to take place on Sept. 17, starting outside the Parliament of Serbia at 5 p.m. At this point we are discussing the modalities of the march with government representatives,” Miletic said.

When asked if reactions by European and American politicians might have compelled the authorities in Serbia to change the decision not to have EuroPride in Belgrade, Miletic said that it was the talks between the EuroPride organizers and government representatives that had tipped the scales.

Miletic said that a full week after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had announced that Belgrade would not host Europe’s largest LGBTI event for security reasons, the organizers didn’t receive an official cancellation notice from the Ministry of the Interior, “the only government body authorized to ban a gathering.”