Opposition Leader: People Are Sick of Ruling Party

Zdravko Ponos( BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/MO)

The president of the Serbia Center Party, Zdravko Ponos, stated on Aug. 3 that he did not expect the demands of the citizens protesting against violence to be fulfilled, but that civil disobedience would shake the regime in Serbia headed by President Aleksandar Vucic.

In an interview to BETA, Ponos said that attendance of protests was important, but that perseverance was more important. Asked about whether the new phase of the “Serbia Against Violence” protests, which the technical organizers have announced as of September, would force the authorities to fulfill the people’s demands, Ponos said it would not.

“It will not. Attendance is important, but perseverance is even more so. Things are good in that regard. The summer has advanced but the protests are going on. I believe they would intensify when the school starts. However, the regime is used too this type of pressure. They will be shaken by gestures of civil disobedience that paralyze the system, paralyze the authorities, that make Vucic respond in a way that shows his true colors, his character and that of this regime, and unveils the true image of the appalling reality,” stated the president of the Serbia Center Party.

Asked to assess the effects of the “Serbia Against Violence” protests so far, Ponos said that the fact that the regime had not fulfilled any of the demands did not mean that the protest was unsuccessful. ”It is successful because it is persistent, because the people are not giving up. It is successful because it has eliminated fear, and that is very important, especially in the interior of the country. It is successful because it has projected to the world the image of people who have risen against an authoritarian regime and the violence that the regime nurtures as its cult,” Ponos stated.