Serbs demonstrate against violence after two mass shootings Portal

Serbs demonstrate against violence after two mass shootings – Portal

BELGRADE, May 8 (Portal) – Tens of thousands of Serbs protested on Monday, demanding more security, a ban on violent TV content and the resignation of key ministers, days after two mass shootings killed 17 people.

Behind a banner with the inscription “Serbia against violence” crowds passed solemnly, the likes of which have not been seen in the Balkan country for years.

“We have gathered here to pay our last respects, to do our best so that something like this never happens again, anywhere,” said Borivoje Plecevic from Belgrade.

A student who brought two handguns into his school on Wednesday killed eight students and a security guard. Six other students and a teacher were injured.

A day later, a 21-year-old man brandishing an assault rifle and pistol killed eight and injured 14 people.

Both shooters turned themselves in to police.

Protesters and opposition supporters called for the closure of TV channels and tabloids they accuse of promoting violent and vulgar content.

Opposition parties and some right-wing groups accuse President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of autocracy, suppression of media freedom, violence against political opponents, corruption and links to organized crime. Vucic and his allies deny the allegations.

Vucic said protesters on Monday tried to force him to resign and to destabilize the country. He said he was ready to test his party’s popularity in a snap poll, but didn’t give a date.

“I will keep working and I will never back down in front of the street and the mob… Whether there will be a government reshuffle or (quick) elections, we’ll see,” he said on a live TV broadcast.

Parliamentary elections in Serbia are scheduled for 2026 and a presidential campaign in 2027.

The demonstrators also demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and Aleksandar Vulin, the director of the State Security Agency, as well as the dismissal of the Government Committee for Electronic Media (REM) within a week.

Education Minister Branko Ruzic resigned on Sunday.

The demonstrators called for an emergency parliamentary session and a debate on the general security situation.

This is an act of “solidarity against…violence in the media, in parliament, in everyday life…solidarity over lost children,” said Snezana, a woman in her 60s who declined to give her last name.

Similar protests took place in several other Serbian cities.

In response to the shooting, Serbian police on Monday issued a month-long amnesty for handing in illegal weapons. More than 1,500 were handed over on the first day.

Vucic announced police checks on registered gun owners.

Serbia has an ingrained gun culture and, along with the rest of the Western Balkans, is awash with privately owned military weapons and ordnance following the 1990s wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Fedja Grulovic and Branko Filipovic; Editing by Mark Potter

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Aleksandar Wasović

Thomson Portal

Reports on the Western Balkans and Ukraine. He previously worked as an editor trainer at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. During his tenure as a correspondent for the Associated Press, he covered the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro, uprisings in North Macedonia and the Presevo Valley, Iraq, Afghanistan and the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine . In the 1990s he worked as an editor and correspondent for Radio B92 in Belgrade, covering wars in Croatia and Bosnia and peace processes between Israel and the Palestinian Territories and Northern Ireland. Received the APME Deadline Reporting Award in 2004 for Saddam’s arrest.