BELGRADE, March 11. /TASS/. Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said the protests scheduled for later this week risk escalating into violence.
"Unfortunately, I'm afraid that Aleksandar is right and that we can expect riots and major incidents, that this has been prepared and that, as he said, even the organizers won't be able to stop it because the situation has gone too far," he said, referring to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. "Tempers are running high with the narrative that, as the popular saying goes, it will be win or bust, meaning that a revolution will start in its most blatant form, being no longer veiled."
Commenting further on the upcoming March 15 mass protest in Belgrade, he said, "We are now only talking about seizing power without elections. One can imagine how it makes neighbors from around the region and others happy that instead of discussing a growth of GDP, wages, pensions, roads and railways we talk about who will smash whose head, whether a minister or a lawmaker will be attacked, whether someone else will be expelled from school, and whether new chaos will be created amid these blockades."
Vucic earlier said he expected the planned rally to descend into violence but warned that any attempts to seize government institutions by force will be harshly suppressed, and the people involved will face criminal penalties ranging from 3 years to 15 years in prison. According to the president, the authorities will not allow a scenario calling for the formation of a transitional government, as it would be an attempt to bypass the legitimate institutions of power.
Serbian students have staged multiple protests following a canopy collapse at a railway station in the country’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, in November, which killed 15 people. As part of the rallies, students disrupted the work of universities and schools and blocked streets and transportation hubs. Officials continue to call for dialogue. According to Vucic, about 3 billion euros had been invested from abroad in supporting the opposition with the aim to overthrow him.