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Serbian anti-government protests turned violent on Wednesday as supporters of President Aleksandar Vučić clashed with demonstrators who have demanded regime change since November, deepening the worst crisis of his presidency.
Tear gas was fired at protesters in Belgrade and thugs with batons were reported beating anti-Vučić activists who approached ruling party premises, while in Novi Sad video recordings showed shots were fired in the air. Dozens of protesters and police officers sustained injuries, according to reports, after a wave of demonstrations in cities across the country.
“Tonight, the government tried to finally provoke a civil war,” the student group that organises the demonstrations wrote on social media, accusing police of protecting regime loyalists who fired fireworks at protesters and carried guns. ‘‘We will not allow them to continue destroying human lives! Together, until victory, everyone on the streets!”
The latest clashes mark a significant escalation in the unrest that began last year when a train station canopy collapsed and killed 16 in the city of Novi Sad, exposing what many people see as government corruption and state dysfunction, and adding to pressure on Vučić.
The protests expanded from being student led to involving hundreds of thousands of citizens earlier this year. But they are no longer as restrained as they were when the students directed them to remain peaceful — raising the spectre of more violence, analysts have warned.
Wednesday’s protests were organised in response to incidents in the northwestern town of Vrbas on Tuesday, where images showed government supporters throwing flares, rocks and bottles at demonstrators outside the ruling party’s offices, who hurled back various objects.
Serbian police arrest a protester in Belgrade © Djordje Kojadinovic/Reuters
Vučić again accused the anti-government participants of taking orders from an unidentified foreign source, a claim he has not substantiated. He escalated his language in a late-night televised address, accusing them of “organising to beat and kill” regime loyalists.
“We never even thought about bringing the army out and there is no need. There will be no civil war. I invite them to sit down and talk,” Vučić said. “The streets of Belgrade and soon Novi Sad are being cleaned of thugs. There will be no mercy for thugs and hooligans.”
The EU and western partners have called on both sides to exercise restraint and for Vučić to respect rights to freedom of expression, but have not intervened, frustrating regime opponents in Serbia. Vučić, as well as his close ally Vladimir Putin, have accused the west of fanning the flames of the protests.
Milos Damnjanovic, an analyst for the Belgrade consultancy BIRN, said the protests had been fuelled by a series of miscalculations by the president. It would not be in Vučić’s interests to call an election before the constitutional deadline of 2027, he said.
‘‘It is hard to see why Vučić would call a snap vote he doesn’t need at a moment when his SNS party’s popularity is lower than ever,” he said. “If elections happen, they could be yet another miscalculation.”