BELGRADE: Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets in Serbia on Thursday after two days of clashes with loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic and riot police that left dozens injured or detained. Police fired tear gas in the country’s capital and several other incidents were reported elsewhere.
In the northern city of Novi Sad, where the anti-Vucic revolt in Serbia started more than nine months ago, groups of young protesters shouted, “He is finished,” as they demolished the offices of the president’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
The demonstrators broke windows on the party’s downtown office and carried away some documents and pieces of furniture from inside. The police or Vucic’s supporters, who have guarded the office for months, where nowhere to be seen.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, police in the evening fired tear gas in at least two locations to disperse the protesters and keep groups of supporters of the opposing camps apart. Protesters in a downtown area scrambled in panic, some tumbling to the ground as they tried to run away.
Vucic told pro-government Informer television that “the state will win” as he announced a crackdown on anti-government protesters, accusing them of inciting violence and of being “enemies of their own country.”
