The demonstrators wore flags of cities throughout the country and kept sixteen minutes of silence for the sixteen people who died in November when a roof of a train station collapsed in the city of Novi Sad. According to the protesters, the accident was a consequence of corruption and poor government supervision. The station had just been renovated.
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The protest was close to the parliament, where thousands of supporters of the government also came together and set up a tent camp that Vucic visited on Saturday. The president then hinted that violence would break out in the evening. After some skirmishes between the two groups, the riot police acted against the anti -regulators. She used tear gas and stun grenades.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the end of the day before the protest in the Serbian capital. © ANP / AFP
Accident Novi Sad
The accident in Novi Sad caused a wave of protests. Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned from the protests in January. He was mayor of Novi Sad when the renovation of the station began. Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesic, also resigned. He was later charged with twelve others as responsible for the accident.
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The Vucic government party, however, keeps the power tight. According to the president, the demonstrators with foreign aid try to overthrow his government. Several people who have to deal with the protests have been arrested. On Friday, a court extended the custody of five people who would have wanted to overthrow the government.