Police pushed the demonstrators back and used pepper spray, among other things. The demonstration was broken up around 10 p.m. local time.
President Aleksandar Vucic spoke of “dramatic scenes” on the pro-government channel Pink TV, the Beta news agency reported. “But there is no revolution underway and they (the protesters) will not succeed.” The Interior Ministry called on demonstrators not to use violence.
President Vucic’s right-wing populist SNS party clearly won in the parliamentary elections on Sunday last week. Local elections were also held that day.
An international observer mission reported a number of “irregularities” after the election, including cases of violence, vote buying and the stuffing of ballot boxes with fraudulent ballots. Citing this report, the Foreign Office in Berlin said the violations were “unacceptable for a country with EU candidate status.”
