BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people rallied in Serbia’s capital on Saturday for a fifth time in a month, following two mass shootings that shook the nation, even as the country’s populist president rejected any responsibility for the crisis and ignored the protesters’ demands to step down.
The crowd, chanting slogans against President Aleksandar Vucic, marched through the capital, Belgrade, to gather in front of his downtown headquarters. They released a large balloon with the inscription “Vucic Go Away.”
University students led the march, holding a banner that read “Serbia against violence!”
The opposition protesters have been demanding the resignations of senior government officials and the revocation of broadcasting licenses for TV networks which, they say, promote violence and glorify crime figures.
The protest on Saturday, likely to be the biggest one so far, was somewhat different from the ones before. Independent journalists covering the march saw right-wing groups infiltrating the march to promote their nationalist agenda.