Tens of thousands again demonstrate against violence in Serbia Hundreds are arrested during protest by climate activists in The Hague

After two massacres three weeks ago, tens of thousands of people demonstrated again on Saturday evening in Belgrade against the violence in Serbia. The participants of the demonstration gathered in front of the parliament in the center of the Serbian capital and then formed a human chain around the nearby headquarters of the state television RTS, a reporter for the German news agency reported. They demanded the resignation of authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic.

It was the fourth protest in a row after a 13-year-old student shot nine classmates and a security guard at a Belgrade school in early May. A day later, a 21-year-old shot people in a village near Belgrade, killing eight of them. The two massacres, which were not directly related, deeply shocked Serbian society.

Saturday’s rally was uneventful. It targeted Vucic and his government, as well as private television stations that condoned violence and mafia crime and propagandized those in power. Vucic himself repeatedly speaks of hatred and contempt for political opponents.

The state broadcaster RTS is also criticized by the opposition, because it hardly allows non-governmental voices to speak and Vucic acts as a mouthpiece. Liberal and left-wing opposition parties and civil society movements had called for the protest. (sda/dpa)