Thursday night, for the second night in a row, the country witnessed protests and violence on the streets. These erupted after SNS supporters in Vrbas and Bački Petrovac violently attacked protestors. Mašina reporters in Belgrade covered the protests from several locations throughout the past few days and documented scores of attacks on citizens from the police and government-sponsored hooligans.
On one side – tear gas, smoke and stun grenades, guns, batons, fireworks, sticks, and stones and on the other –citizens who no longer want to passively spectate. Police threw tear gas – citizens threw it back. The Gendarmerie pushed citizens and, in some places, citizens pushed them back.
Everything started on Wednesday in the northern town of Vrbas, when at least 70 people were injured by Serbian Progressive Party supporters who, under police protection, attacked citizens with fireworks, stones, and frozen bottles.
On the nights of August 14 and 15, citizens took to the streets despite the growing police repression. As of writing, the protests show no signs of stopping.
The events of these past few days have marked a sharp escalation in the repression of the nine-month-long movement catalyzed in November 2024, when the roof of the recently renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people. What exactly has this escalation looked like?
Vrbas: the straw that broke the camel’s back
On Tuesday night in the northern town of Vrbas, tensions boiled over when supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), under police protection, attacked citizens with fireworks, stones, and a frozen bottle. At least 70 people were injured, while the number of those who were targeted but did not seek medical help is significantly higher. Among them was Mašina’s editor, Marko Miletić. Following the incident, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a statement claiming that citizens had attacked SNS supporters and police officers.
Mašina reported on the ground and witnessed SNS supporters attacking peaceful citizens, while the police mostly stood by passively – in some moments even turning their shields toward unarmed citizens.
Meanwhile, national police director Dragan Vasiljević stated: “The police had advance notice of the gatherings, but we thought they would pass without conflict. The crowd headed toward the SNS offices, in front of which several hundred party supporters had gathered. It must be made clear that SNS supporters were not going anywhere to attack someone; they were simply in front of their party offices. The essence is that in both Vrbas and Bačka Palanka, citizens gathered with the obvious intention of clashing with SNS supporters.”
The protest in Vrbas initially began in response to the organized bussing-in of SNS activists from other towns, locals told Mašina. Around 9:30 p.m., SNS supporters began launching firework projectiles at the protesters. The police director stated that complete calm was only restored around 6 a.m., and that there were gatherings in Kragujevac, Niš, and Belgrade as well. “We did not protect one group, but public order and peace, and we did not allow a clash between citizens,” Vasiljević said—despite numerous videos showing the exact opposite.
In the wake of the events in Vrbas, late Tuesday night, people in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Niš took to the streets to stand in solidarity with those attacked by the ruling party’s hooligans. Clashes broke out while police diligently safeguarded the Serbian Progressive Party’s offices.
Thousands of protesters face off with military special forces
The anger that has been simmering for many — not only over the past year but over decades under a neoliberal and dictatorial government — was palpable on Wednesday evening. Protests were organized in over 20 towns across Serbia, with five locations in the capital, Belgrade, alone, to denounce the ruling party’s attacks on protesters in Vrbas and Bački Petrovac.
In countless locations, police used tear gas, smoke bombs, and violently beat protesters.
Novi Sad saw the most serious escalation on Wednesday evening. The office of the ruling party was set on fire, and protesters smashed the windows. Ruling party hooligans fired fireworks, stones, and other objects from within the premises—with impunity and under police protection. At one point, a man emerged from the office carrying a gun, which, according to witnesses, he allegedly fired into the air.
Interior Minister Dačić stated that the man was a Serbian Army warrant officer “on an official mission to protect a VIP.”
“In this attack, there was a real danger of loss of life. The man, in accordance with the law, used—or rather, did not use but carried—an official weapon. Warrant Officer Vladimir Brkušanin of the Serbian Army was himself seriously injured. If he hadn’t drawn his service pistol and used it, I’m sure he and others would have suffered serious consequences, perhaps even lost their lives,” Dačić told the government-affiliated TV channel Informer.
It is unknown who the VIP in question was. Lieutenant General Đuro Jovanović, head of the Military Security Agency, said at a press conference that “members of the Serbian Army’s special military police unit, the Cobras, were attacked while performing their regular duties securing a certain individual. During the attack by unknown persons using physical force, sticks, various objects, torches, and other pyrotechnics, seven Serbian Army members were injured, four of them seriously. The soldiers repeatedly warned the attackers that they were authorized officials, that they were members of the army, but the attackers refused to stop and continued their assaults,” Jovanović said.
Police continue their brutality into Thursday evening
In clips widely circulated from the western city of Valjevo, scores of police officers can be seen tackling two protesters who were running away and appeared to pose no threat, then proceeding to beat them for several minutes with their batons.
Students of the Valjevo Gymnasium stated: “We have reached a point of no return, where local sheriffs are ready even to kill their own future for someone else’s interests and to protect a corrupt system they have been part of for many years,” adding that last night they witnessed unprecedented brutality from the Ministry of Interior – “brutal attacks, coordinated actions, and extreme hatred toward everything free and incorruptible in this country.”
The students have called for a massive protest tomorrow, Saturday, August 16, at 7 p.m. in response to the brutality.
Politician beaten for filming government hooligans
Party of Freedom and Justice opposition politician Peđa Mitrović told N1 that on Thursday night he was beaten near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, where he had tried to record hooligans who had “been throwing firecrackers, flares, fireworks, and other pyrotechnics at citizens all evening from behind police lines.”
“So, they were using the police as a human shield to attack citizens. The police, instead of dispersing them, dispersed the demonstrators,” Mitrović said. According to him, this was a coalition of hooligans, SNS, and parts of the police aiming to carry out violence against citizens.
“Then seven or eight of them, wearing balaclavas and carrying metal rods, charged at me. They cornered me against the fence near the MFA, hit me on the body and head. I got a head wound that was bleeding heavily — blood was pouring out of me — and I had to get stitches,” Mitrović told N1.
He also claims that the Gendarmerie and several police patrols passed by him while he was bloody and running from hooligans — but no one stopped to ask if he needed help.
Mašina and other journalists reporting under difficult conditions
After Mašina’s editor Marko Miletić was struck multiple times by stones, frozen bottles, and fireworks during the events in Vrbas, and N1 cameraman’s assistant Andrej Stamenković was hit twice by stones — in the shoulder and stomach — Mašina’s reporters have repeatedly faced harassment while reporting from the field.
During the protests, police officers repeatedly shoved Miletić despite his press vest and accreditation. Several times, police pushed and hit him with their shields, lunged at him, and moved him away from the protest despite his journalistic designation being clear and visible. Near the end of the protest by the Faculty of Agriculture, a tear gas canister flew past his head. Police officers also shoved Mašina reporter Ana Milosavljević to prevent her from filming an arrest in downtown Belgrade.
The Independent Journalists Association of Serbia released a statement on Thursday counting 10 separate attacks on journalists reporting on Wednesday’s protests, including physical assaults, verbal abuse, and damage or destruction of equipment. They wrote in a statement: “Journalistic and media organizations from Serbia and the region strongly condemn the continuous attacks on journalists and media workers during coverage of events of public importance, as well as the brutal assaults by police officers. These organizations demand that the police and all citizens stop attacking, threatening, and intimidating journalists and media workers, and ensure they can work under normal and safe conditions.”
A.G.A, I.P., A.M.
