Protesters rally in Novi Sad as anti-government demonstrations continue across Serbia

Описание: (15 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Novi Sad, Serbia - 15 August 2025
1. Various of protesters on motorcycles during protest
++NIGHT SHOTS++
2. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Zoran Beronja, protester:
"Beating up of our children, brutality of police, shame on this country, shame on (Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica) Dacic and (Serbian President, Aleksandar) Vucic. Shame on the police, shame on every policeman. If I was a policeman I would quit my job."
3. Woman holding sign reading (Serbian): "Dacic you will be held responsible for every punch"
4. Mid of protest
5. Various of protester blowing whistle
6. Mid of Serbian veterans
7. Police outside police station
8. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Anabela Arsenovic, protester:
"I think this fight will not be over soon. There are months ahead of us in this fight but I hope it will end at some point and the elections will be held."
9. Various of protest
10. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Ksenija Boskovic, protester:
"Well protests here begun in November, December last year. It's August now. It's nine months of peaceful protests, people on bicycles, with flowers with kids. But they (ruling party) respond to all that by force, by arresting people. They have allowed people to run over protesters with cars. They were insulting us, calling us Ustasha's (Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization), fascists. I guess by now they (the ruling party) could have figured that the majority of people are here (at the protest) and that obviously we need change."
11. Various of protest
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the police headquarters in Serbia's second largest city of Novi Sad, demanding the release of detained demonstrators from a rally the night before.

Serbia’s police said Friday they had detained hundreds of demonstrators who took part in anti-government protests throughout the country this week.

The three days of clashes between the police and loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic on one side and the anti-government protesters on the other left dozens injured or detained.

The unrest in the capital, Belgrade, and throughout Serbia this week marked a serious escalation of more than nine months of largely peaceful demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have shaken Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.

Another protest, under the slogan “Let’s show them we are not a punching bag,” was held Friday night throughout Serbia.

Police deployed armored vehicles in parts of the capital as protesters faced off against riot police separating them from Vucic's supporters in downtown Belgrade.

The protests that have rattled Vucic first started in November after a renovated train station canopy collapsed in Serbia’s north, killing 16 people.

Many in Serbia blame the tragedy on alleged corruption-fueled negligence in state infrastructure projects.

Vucic praised the police for their conduct during the latest demonstrations, saying he will propose additional bonuses for the officers.

Speaking with state TV broadcaster RTS, he repeated his claim that the protests were inspired by the West with the intention of toppling him from power. He has not provided any evidence for the claim.

Several social media posts from this week show baton-wielding riot police beating people to the ground and then kicking them with their boots before they were handcuffed. The apparent targets were often women and young people.


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