This article originally appeared on VICE Serbia
On Monday evening, thousands of mostly young Serbs came together in Serbia’s capital Belgrade to protest the outcome of Sunday’s presidential elections. Conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic won the presidency by a landslide with 55 percent of the votes, while his main opponent didn’t get more than 16.2 percent. Protesters doubt the elections went down fairly – Vucic has in the past been accused of being an autocratic ruler, and his party of not doing anything against corruption. The protest, called “Protest Against Dictatorship 2017” had been announced on Facebook, with an unsigned message:
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“The protest will have no leaders. This is the first fight in a war for a better future, come and express your opinion. It’s time to use the internet to do what we can’t otherwise do in this country – make our voices heard and really feel like we can change something.”
Protesters seemed to have very different convictions behind their outrage – some carried anti-NATO flags, others rainbow flags, some were nationalists, others anarchists. But they shared the belief that Vucic shouldn’t be Serbia’s new president and chanted together that Vucic was a “thief” who should “resign”.
Protests continued on Tuesday evening in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia.
Read more: Many Young Serbs Are Planning to Leave Their Country After Last Night’s Election Result
Scroll down for Aleksa Vitorovic’s pictures of Monday’s protests.
