Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Saturday, ahead of the protest in Belgrade that the student movement called for from 6 to 9 p.m., that he expects violence, saying that “it is impossible for someone to invest huge money against a country without at least trying something”.
The “See you on Vidovdan” protest, scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. on Slavija Square in Belgrade, which was called by the student movement with a request to call early elections, is expected with numerous tensions and accusations from the ruling party that it is an illegal assembly whose goal is violence and unconstitutional actions.
Vučić today, after awarding the recognition on the occasion of Vidovdan, which is celebrated in Serbia as both a religious and a state holiday, said that “a lot of evil has been done to Serbia” during the anti-government protests in recent months, and that he believes that “in the end, everyone will see what a mistake they made”.
“But I’m afraid that some will have to justify what has come from outside. Serbia is very strong, this is not a handful of oats that every crow is a prey to. We will do our best to be restrained, the state will be preserved and defended, and the bullies will be brought to justice,” Vučić stressed.
He added that he expects violence at the end of the rally.
“According to our assessment, expect the beginning of violence from 8:45 to 9:45 p.m., but we are ready,” Vučić said.
The government calls the protests led by students since December last year a “colored revolution,” and calls students, social groups that support them, and the opposition “blockade fighters,” “terrorists,” and “fascists.”
Speaking at several party rallies and in almost daily television addresses, Vučić has been saying in recent months that the “colored revolution” has been defeated, and that he will write a book about it just before Vidovdan, but everything else has remained at the level of his populist speeches.
In the meantime, the student movement highlighted the request for the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early elections, and set a deadline of June 28 at 9 p.m.
However, Vučić said on Friday that “the ultimatum was not accepted” and that “they don’t have to wait until 9 pm”, when the official end of the protest was announced.
In the center of Belgrade and in the side streets on Saturday, the increased deployment of police forces was visible during the day, while tabloids and media sympathetic to Vučić waged a propaganda war spreading the narrative about the protesters’ intentions for violence against the constitutional order.
In parallel with the preparations for the student protest, in front of the Assembly of Serbia, Vučić’s supporters and a group calling themselves Students 2.0 and “students who want to learn” are announcing a literary evening with a cultural and artistic program.
Belgrade media reports that SNS supporters are arriving in Belgrade by bus, and participation in the literary evening in front of the parliament has also been announced by the president of the Serbian Progressive Party and the former prime minister, and now Vučić’s advisor for regional issues, Miloš Vučević.
