Djilas, Fellow Party Member End Up in ER After Clashing with Group Putting Up Posters Against Them

Clinical center of Serbia (Betaphoto/Milos Miskov/MO)

Freedom and Justice Party leader Dragan Djilas and party official Djordje Aleksic ended up in the ER after midnight on Dec. 20, after having clashed with a group of individuals who were putting up posters with messages against Djilas.

The party said on X that police arrived at the scene after the clash and took statements from the three party officials present.

After a medical examination in the ER, Djilas said that he had approached a group of young men to ask them why they were putting up offensive posters and who was behind them.

"We came to ask them why they were doing that, why they were putting up posters that people looked at and which were insulting someone, [posters] they have been claiming for years are not theirs, and as you can see - they are theirs and Vucic and that organized crime group are behind them. They were put up at the school my children go to a few years ago, too. I had thought until tonight that my being an MP and the leader of an opposition party protected me - obviously they will stop at nothing. All I can do is advise people to keep the peace and life, because a person's life is worth more than anything," N1 quoted Djilas as saying.

Aleksic said the young men had attacked them, pushed Djilas to the ground and "started kicking him viciously." "I lay over him and they kept kicking both of us. The footage shows people falling over from the force of the blow, as well as that no one had gone there to fight anyone, you can see I have my hands up, that I'm trying to prevent anything worse from happening, but they struck first. We were defending ourselves, it's all visible in the footage," said Aleksic.

Freedom and Justice Party Vice President Marinika Tepic said on X that "the leader of the thugs" who hit and kicked Djilas and Aleksic last night was Luka Petrovic, a member of the Serbian Progressive Party leadership and City of Belgrade secretary for investment.