Citizens at Protest in Belgrade Demand Halt to Violence in Serbia

Citizens at Protest in Belgrade, May 8 2023 (BETAPHOTO/ANA SLOVIC)

The Serbia against Violence protest called by several opposition parties took place in Belgrade on May 8.

The protest began in front of the Serbian parliament with a minute of silence in honor of the victims of two mass shootings last week, in Belgrade and near Mladenovac and Smederevo, which claimed 17 lives and injured 21. Those assembled then began a protest march in silence from Nikola Pasic Square to the Serbian government headquarters.

Before the march, Marina Vidojevic, a teacher of Serbian language and literature, briefly addressed the rally, reading the joint demands of the opposition parties who called the protest, noting that the deadline for meeting those demands was May 12.

The demands include an urgent halt to further glorification of violence in the media and public space and sacking of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media Council. The organizers also want print media and tabloids that promote hate and violence and consistently violate the journalist code of ethics to be shut down, television networks that glorify violence, like Pink and Happy TV, to lose their national frequencies, and programming that promotes violence, immorality and aggression airred by national-coverage TV networks, like some reality shows, to be terminated.

The organizers' demands include the sackings of Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and Security and Information Agency director Aleksandar Vulin.

The organizers of the protest were the Democratic Party, the People's Party, the Green Left Front - Don't Let Belgrade Drown, the Together party, the Freedom and Justice Party, the Free Citizens Movement, the Concord trade union and Movement for a Turnaround.

Democratic Party MP Srdjan Milivojevic said more than 50,000 people had assembled at the Serbia against Violence protest, noting that this was a "police estimate."

Protest marches were also held in Novi Sad, where several thousand people assembled, and in Cacak.