Tens of thousands demand justice and protest against populist rule in Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched again in Serbia on Monday with shielded riot police guarding the Belgrade headquarters of Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, who has threatened a major crackdown against those protesting his populist rule.

The protest led by high school and university students marked 10 months since a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s northern town of Novi Sad, killing 16 people. The disaster ignited a wave of public outrage, with state corruption and negligence cited as a major cause.

The protests Monday were held in the capital Belgrade and several other towns in Serbia. In Novi Sad, baton wielding police charged against the peaceful protesters, slightly injuring some of them, according to local portals.

Shielded riot police cordons and paramilitary loyalists guarded a park in the downtown of the capital in front of Vucic’s headquarters, which has been serving for months as a human shield against the protesters.

The protesters have been demanding early elections, transparent investigations and criminal prosecutions against those responsible for the canopy collapse, as well as free media that Vucic is trying to stifle.

“I think this fight will not be over soon,” said Anabela Arsenovic, a student. “There are months ahead of us fighting, but I hope it will at some point and the elections will be held.”

More than a hundred university and high school professors have been sacked as authorities cracked down against their support of the students. They have been replaced by Vucic’s loyalists.

The large protest on Monday was held as Vucic, who has claimed he wants to take Serbia to a European Union membership, traveled to China for a gathering that includes Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of China and North Korea, along with the Belarus and Iranian presidents.

Vucic, who has been annoyed by independent media coverage of the protests, has branded the protesters as terrorists who want to unseat him from power.

Thousands of Vucic’s supporters marched in several Serbian towns on Sunday in a sign of deep divisions in the Balkan state.