More than 100,000 people manifest themselves in Serbia against government corruption and President Vucic claims to understand “rage”

All Serbia joined Belgrade. More than 100,000 protesters concentrated this Saturday in the Serbian capital, despite rain and cold, to star in one of the greatest demonstrations that are remembered in the Balkan country. «Look how many we are here! Your voice tells! Let’s wake up Serbia together! ”The crowd sang.

The president of the country, the nationalist Aleksandar Vucic, has addressed the nation hours later, applauding the protest and recognizing the accumulated “rage” against the government. “I am particularly proud that the students who have organized the march have distanced themselves from these confrontations of fuss,” he said. He also highlighted the “enormous negative energy, anger and anger accumulated towards the authorities of the country”, accused of lack of transparency in the investigation of the collapse of a marquee of the station, which cost the lives of 15 people.

Vucic has also confirmed 56 minor injured and 22 detainees during the day. The president has shown himself in a more conciliatory tone than the one exhibited on the eve, when he warned that the protest hid a “revolution” with the intention of destroying his government, he added in the press conference. “We have captured the message,” he ratified; “But what people have to do right now is to return to universities and institutes.”

100,000 people on the street

This Saturday afternoon, thousands of people waveling flags were concentrated in the center of Belgraph “Corruption kills.”

The traffic stopped throughout the city and the main boulevards and intersections were completely blocked while protesters were heading to the city center on foot, according to local media.

The protests began last November after the awning of the main Railway Station of Novi Sad, the center of the lush northern region of Serbia, collapsed over offsembled passersby and kill 14 people in the place. Among the victims there were children 9 and 5 years old. Another victim died later because of their wounds, while several others suffered amputations.

What began as 15 -minute vigils (one minute for every lost life) has become the greatest protest movement in the modern history of Serbia, and the manifestations have become increasingly large as the Government rushes to deny responsibility despite the evidence that links the collapse with the recent renewals in the railway terminal.

Protests since November

At the end of November and December, university and high school students began to boycott classes in protest. Entire faculties suspended the classes, declaring them “occupied”, while the students settled on the campus.

This demonstration seems to be much greater than that of October 5, 2000 when thousands of people went out to protest to demand the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

Dozens of farmers at the wheel of their tractors also congregated in the area. Other tractors, taken there by government supporters, were parked near the headquarters of the Presidency on early Friday.

The Interior Ministry declared that at least 107,000 people had come to protests. However, the number is multiplied and according to the protesters themselves, in the streets of the capital there were more than half a million people.

In a statement broadcast on social networks, students called to demonstrate «Calm and responsible». “The objective of this movement is not intrusion in institutions or attacking those who do not think like us,” he said.

Saturday’s demonstration was mostly peaceful, but the police arrested a man who rammed the protesters in a suburb of Belgrade, injuring three people, AP reported.

This is the last of a series of mass meetings in the four largest cities in the country (Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Sad), as well as smaller protests in almost all cities in the country.

While the Government acted with caution initially in its response to protests, avoiding open repression or hard criticism, a series of isolated fights and attacks against protesters in the last four months have exacerbated tension. The protesters claim that these climbs were instigated by masked and hooded provocatives.

Several ministers of the ruler Serbio Progressive Party, together with Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, presented their resignations in response to events, but also proceeded to accuse the protesters of conspiring to overthrow the government.

Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 2012, but progress has stagnated under the leadership of Vučić and its prorous position on the war in Ukraine.