BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Chanting patriotic songs, thousands of supporters of Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic gathered in downtown Belgrade on Friday, a day ahead of what authorities expect to be a huge rally in his support.
Belgrade was on edge, with authorities preparing for large crowds and potential counter-demonstrations in different parts of Serbia, including an anti-government rally in a southern Muslim-populated part of the country.
The rally in the Serbian capital is expected to be a significant moment in Serbia’s ongoing political crisis after more than five months of student-led anti-corruption protests triggered by a rail station canopy collapse that killed 16 people in the north of the country on Nov. 1.
In Belgrade on Friday, Vucic unveiled a Serbian red blue and white flag which the state-run media said is the largest in the history of the Balkan state. In the central parts of the capital in front of the parliament building dozens of tents were erected to house Vucic’s supporters arriving from different parts of the country, as well as Serbs from neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia.
A neighboring park in front of the presidential palace was packed with plainclothes police and surrounded by dozens of tractors intended as a barricade against eventual assault.
Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian government has stepped up a crackdown against critics and independent media while struggling to quell monthslong anti-corruption protests triggered by the rail station canopy collapse.
Vucic and his allies have claimed that unidentified Western intelligence services were behind the student-led protests with the aim to unseat him from power by staging a so-called “color revolution.”
“Serbia has stood up against resistance against those who want to destroy Serbia and we will win,” Vucic said, adding that he expects much bigger crowds on Saturday.
Vucic has threatened legal action against students, professors, journalists reporting from the protest, and even state prosecutors who refuse to trigger court proceedings.
Vucic is a former extreme nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the European Union but has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms while maintaining close relations with Russia and China.
Thousands of opposition supporters are also expected to gather on Saturday in the southern town of Novi Pazar, many of them arriving on foot or on bicycles for the latest in a series of anti-government protests against corruption and for democratic freedoms.
