site.btaProtests Mark Six Months since Novi Sad Tragedy

The Serbian Ministry of Interior and the NGO Archive of Public Gatherings announced different numbers of participants in the May 1 protest, which was jointly organized by students blocking faculties and five trade union organizations.

The Archive of Public Gatherings reported on social media that the protesters in Belgrade numbered 18,000.

The NGO's figure was reported at 2.50 pm, 50 minutes after the officially announced start time of the protest in the Serbian capital.

However, according to data from Serbia's Interior Ministry, three times fewer - 6,200 people - protested in Belgrade on May 1.

Due to various malicious and inaccurate information from unqualified sources, the Ministry of the Interior officially reported that data, determined by precise counting software technology, shows that at the gathering in front of the Serbian government at 2:54 pm, a total of 6,200 participants were present, and that this was the largest number measured during the gathering, the ministry said in a press release issued Thursday and quoted by Serbian media.

Commenting on Thursday evening's protest from the United States, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic pointed to an even smaller number of protesters in the Serbian capital - 5,673.

“Today's gatherings show that their time has passed and now is the time for responsibility,” Vucic said in Florida, quoted by Serbian media, adding that the government had expected three times as many people to turn out for the protest in Belgrade.

Vucic said Serbian authorities expected about 15,000 people to gather in Belgrade and about 9,000 to turn out for the protest in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad.

The May 1 anti-government protests in Serbia's capital and in Novi Sad, the administrative centre of the northern Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina, coincided with the commemoration of the half-year anniversary of the Novi Sad tragedy, where a railway station canopy collapsed on November 1, killing 16 people.

A wave of social tension rose across the country on this occasion and protests, organized mainly by students, started as early as last November, blocking more than 60 university faculties.

According to the protesters, the tragedy in Novi Sad occurred because of corrupt practices that led to shoddy and expensive repairs at the station. They want political and criminal responsibility for what happened to be taken, demand that corruption be fought and that institutions work without political pressure and influence.