BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Pride march in Serbia ‘s capital on Saturday condemned police violence against anti-government protesters while offering support to university students behind the monthslong demonstrations against populist President Aleksandar Vucic.
Organizers said the event in Belgrade was a protest, without festival-style features. Participants instead held a commemorative silence that has marked the past 10 months of persistent student-led demonstrations challenging Vucic.
One of the banners at the gathering in central Belgrade read “Gays against police state!” while another used the “Pump it up!” rallying call of the student-led movement that has drawn hundreds of thousands of people against Vucic.
“We cannot close our eyes at what’s happening in our country,” march organizers said in a statement. They cited frequent police brutality and jailing of protesters. “Pride won’t take part in creating a semblance of normalcy.”
The protests started in November when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s north, killing 16 people. The disaster ignited a wave of anti-corruption demonstrations alleging graft-fueled negligence as its cause.
The i ncreasingly authoritarian Vucic has rejected a student demand for a snap parliamentary election. He has stepped up a crackdown against the protesters, sacking scores of professors and teachers and deploying police inside some faculty buildings.
On Friday evening, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad who gathered at the university campus. Police said they responded to “massive attacks” from masked protesters who threw flares and various objects at them. University students behind the protest said police launched “brutal attacks on their own citizens.”
Dozens of people were injured in the chaos as baton-wielding, shielded riot police charged at the protesters to push them away from the campus, sending many fleeing in panic and falling down. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said 13 officers were injured and at least 42 protesters detained.
Police on Saturday secured the Belgrade pride march that has been marred in the past by violent attacks from right-wing extremists. No incidents were reported.
Members of Serbia’s embattled LGBTQ+ community routinely face harassment in the highly conservative country. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership but has done little to boost LGBTQ+ rights, including legalizing same-sex partnerships.