thousands of demonstrators in the street to denounce fraud

This is the 13th consecutive demonstration since the announcement of the results of the legislative and local elections on Sunday. These Serbs are demanding the cancellation of the elections, in order to be able to organize a new vote in six months.

They tirelessly demand the cancellation of the elections and serious investigations. Thousands of Serbs took to the streets of central Belgrade on Saturday, December 30 to protest against the fraud which, according to them, marred the legislative elections of December 17 won by the nationalist right. This is the 13th consecutive demonstration since the announcement of the results of the legislative and local elections, according to which the SNS (nationalist right) party of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, in power since 2012, won 46% of the votes against 23.5%. to the opposition coalition.

The opposition contested these results and spoke of numerous irregularities. In particular the fact that, according to her, Bosnian Serbs were illegally allowed to come and vote in the capital. International observers have also reported numerous irregularities.

“These elections must be canceled”

Saturday’s protest was organized by a group of intellectuals, artists and celebrities, ProGlass (a pun meaning both “proclamation” and “pro-vote”). Pro-glass began by campaigning to call for people to vote. His proclamation then turned into a protest against fraud. But the protesters gathered on Saturday were from all sides, from the main opposition coalition “Serbia against violence” to groups of students and young people who have been demonstrating for almost two weeks.

A compact crowd gathered at the gathering place, around the Terazije fountain, is symbolic, linked in memories to the four days of demonstrations in March 1991, the first major protests against the strong man of the time, Slobodan Milosevic.

The crowd particularly cheered the opposition leader, Marinika Tepic, who, on hunger strike since December 18, had to be helped to get on the stage. “The only thing I can tell you is that everything has already been said. These elections must be canceled”she said, before going to the hospital and announcing that she was finally putting an end to her hunger strike.