Rightists Protest against Plan for Kosovo, Vucic Vows State Won’t Be Tolerating Violence   

Rightists Protest against Plan for Kosovo in Belgrade (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

Following a rally of several right-wing groups in downtown Belgrade protesting against the French-German proposal for Kosovo, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the evening on Feb. 15 said the state would not be tolerating violence and that relevant bodies would respond.  

The rally gathered several thousand protesters, who at some point knocked down the fence around the Serbian Presidency, throwing eggs at the building and chanting “Go to Kosovo,” “Treason, treason” and “Where Is Vucic?”   

Speaking to TV Pink after the protest, Vucic said he had held an urgent meeting with security services, which had analyzed the state of public peace and order and had concluded that relevant bodies had everything under control. Vucic stressed he would not allow “violent individuals or extremists to jeopardize the integrity and constitutional order of Serbia.”  

Vucic also said that the rally “would not have required any special attention had not it been backed by at least four parliamentary parties,” whose representatives, he said, had attended the protest.  

Vucic also said he did not know whether the organizers were of “the pro-Russian orientation” as they were Serbia’s nationals, adding he though knew "they are anti-Serbians as they act against their own people.”