Daily Times

Major opposition protests in Serbia have been relatively rare over the past decade, but the icy January air has ushered in a swelling mood of revolt.

Since last month, thousands of demonstrators have rallied each Saturday through Belgrade’s frozen streets against President Aleksandar Vucic, accusing him of stifling media freedoms and cracking down on the opposition.

This Saturday, for the sixth time in a row, the marchers will again hoist their flags and banners in a united display of discontent against Vucic’s increasingly controversial rule.

“Dictator!” cried the crowd at a recent demonstration in the capital.

More than a dozen people carried a giant banner reading: “Stop bloody shirts” — a reference to opposition politician Borko Stefanovic’s bloodstained shirt after he was beaten up last November.

It was that incident that triggered the first protests.

For the sixth time in a row, the marchers again hoisted their flags and banners in a united display of discontent against Vucic’s increasingly controversial rule

The assault was reminiscent of the violent attacks on political opponents in the 1990s under the rule of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The authorities denied involvement in the attack on Stefanovic, but the Alliance for Serbia, an umbrella group of opposition parties from across the political spectrum, blamed Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Then youth activists, who insist they are not affiliated with any political party, decided to step in.

“We realised that the time had come to do something on the street,” one of the protest organisers, Jelena Anasonovic, told AFP.

“The violence, both physical and verbal” in everyday Serbian life, had become “the norm”, Anasonovic said.

Vucic, a former ultra-nationalist who now says he favours Serbia joining the EU, has rejected claims he has become autocratic.

And despite the protests, opinion polls suggest Vucic’s SNS party dominates the political arena. Serbia’s divided opposition that has little in common other than an aversion to the president.

The opposition does not offer “a viable alternative to the autocracy of Vucic” even though “he is unbearable”, said protester Milos Banjanin, a 27-year old economist.

The next national vote is expected in 2020 but Vucic, who served as premier from 2014 and became president in 2017, has hinted he could call early elections.

Observers and polls suggest he would likely win.

Published in Daily Times, January 13^th 2019.