Serbian police clash with anti-government protesters
Serbian police have clashed with anti-government protesters demanding snap elections and an end to the 12-year rule of President Aleksandar Vucic.
Police deployed scores of officers in riot gear around government buildings, parliament and nearby Pionirski Park, where throngs of Vucic's backers from across the nation gathered in a counter-protest.
After the protest ended, some who wanted to confront Vucic's supporters threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police, who used force to disperse them in several locations across Belgrade's city centre.
The protesters shouted: "Keep the shields down," calling on the police to stop intervening.
Police detained several dozen demonstrators, while six officers were reported injured in clashes, Dragan Vasiljevic, the director of police, told a press conference late on Saturday local time.
Vucic said protesters attempted to topple the state. "They wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed," he wrote on his Instagram page.
In a statement, students accused the government of escalating tensions.
"They (authorities) ... opted for violence and repression against the people. Every radicalisation of the situation is their responsibility," students wrote on the X social media platform.
In a statement, Ivica Dacic, the interior minister, said police will act to maintain public order.
"The police will take all measures to establish public order and peace ... and apply all its powers to repel attacks, and arrest all those who attacked the police," Dacic said.
Months of protests across the nation, including university shutdowns, have rattled Vucic, a populist, whose second term ends in 2027, when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled.
Vucic's opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, something they deny.
Earlier on Saturday, Vucic said unspecified "foreign powers" were behind the protest. He said police should be restrained, but warned that violence will not be tolerated.
"The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice," he told reporters in Belgrade.
Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said she came to support students.
"The institutions have been usurped and ... there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don't think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully," she told Reuters.
In the days ahead of the protest, police arrested about a dozen anti-government activists, charging them with undermining the constitution and terrorism. All denied the charges.
The Belgrade rally coincides with St Vitus Day, venerated by most Serbs, which marks the 1389 Battle of Kosovo with Ottoman Turks.
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