site.btaClashes Escalate in Serbia: Dozens Injured and Arrested, Masked Men Storm Ruling Party Office

Forty-two police officers were injured during anti-government protests in Serbia Thursday night, and 37 people have been arrested so far, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic announced this morning, as reported by local media. The office of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad was vandalized by masked men wearing helmets, RTS reported. There were no people in the office at the time of the incident.

“There were no supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party at the protest last night. It was the police who were attacked - the police, who are here to maintain public order and peace. They normalized the situation in Belgrade,” Dacic said at a press conference. “At least 42 officers were injured, most of them in Belgrade. Some sustained more serious injuries - broken arms, legs, blunt force trauma... So far, 37 individuals have been arrested.” He stressed that the situation was most serious in Novi Sad.

He described the events as “the most serious attacks on the police in recent years.” “Stones were thrown, police were insulted and beaten with metal rods and batons, faces were masked to avoid identification. The police responded and used chemical agents where necessary to protect themselves. This is an attack on the state,” said Dacic.

The unrest follows a national wave of social discontent, which began after a tragic incident at the train station in Novi Sad last year, where 16 people were killed as a canopy collapsed.

Students blocked over 60 university faculties across the country and took leadership of spontaneous protests, accusing the government and president of corruption and nepotism.

During the attack on the SNS office, windows were smashed, and everything inside, including security cameras, was removed, according to video footage shared on social media.

“Savages in masks spent half an hour breaking windows of our party’s offices, smashing the entrance, and stealing everything they found,” SNS Chairman Milos Vucevic wrote on Instagram, calling the incident “fascism in action in Novi Sad.”

President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the destruction of SNS property and declared that all those who committed acts of violence would be held accountable. He called on citizens to remain calm.

“Everything that is happening tonight is organized from abroad,” he stated.

On the same day, Vucic appeared among SNS supporters in Belgrade and announced that 4,000 members and sympathizers of the ruling party had gathered in different Serbian cities to protect party properties from protesters. According to him, 1,000 people were present at the party's headquarters in Subotica alone.

On the evening of August 13 in Novi Sad, clashes broke out between protesters and SNS supporters inside and outside the party office. Police formed a cordon to separate the groups, but party property was later set on fire, and tensions continued for hours.

At one point, a military officer fired a shot into the air, causing the crowd to scatter. “I fired because I felt that my life and the lives of my colleagues were in danger,” the officer said the next morning.

According to the opposition, at the time of the gunshot in Novi Sad, members of the elite Cobra security unit were trying to evacuate former Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, who is also the SNS chairman.

In the late hours of August 14 in New Belgrade, police repeatedly used tear gas to disperse the crowd, forcing demonstrators to retreat. Pyrotechnic devices were fired near the General Staff building in central Belgrade. Gendarmerie units pushed protesters toward the government building, while government supporters remained stationed near party offices in the same area. Suddenly, a group of masked men with batons appeared among the crowd. Students and the opposition warned that the authorities were trying to provoke clashes.

Protesters in several cities chanted: “Your hands are covered in blood!” “Arrest Vucic!” “He’s finished!”

Meanwhile, Serbian Patriarch Porfirije issued a call for peace and nonviolence, coinciding with the start of the Dormition Fast, according to the Julian calendar used in the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Following the 2024 tragedy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people, Serbia has experienced months of mass protests, now considered the biggest challenge to President Vucic' rule.

Public pressure led to the resignation of the government, but the ruling coalition quickly formed a new cabinet, and for the first time since Serbia’s democratic transition, the country has a nonpartisan prime minister with no prior political experience.