FLASH
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"For more than six months, thousands of people have been protesting in Serbia. They are extremely creative in devising new protest strategies," the German media outlet DW assesses.
The situation in Serbia is deteriorating, reports the German news agency KNA. “What started as a protest against corruption is increasingly becoming a test for the government. In Serbia, students are increasingly turning to civil disobedience, while the police are responding with a wave of arrests.”
"With sit-ins, garbage containers and other barricades on the streets, demonstrators are temporarily paralyzing traffic in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities," the agency reports.
"The actions followed Saturday's large demonstrations, in which more than 100,000 people in the capital demanded early parliamentary elections."
Peaceful and innovative method is driving the police crazy
“In Belgrade it is impossible to plan anything for days,” writes the Berlin-based newspaper Tagesspiegel. “Wherever you go, you come across barricades erected by protesting citizens. And people are confronted by special police units in full combat gear and with menacing black masks over their faces.”
“Public transport has been frequently disrupted. This Wednesday alone, around thirty lines were cancelled in Belgrade. Every day, dozens of ‘terrorists’, meaning citizens demonstrating peacefully in the streets, are being arrested. The civil protests initiated by students and which have been ongoing across the country for more than half a year, such as the blockades of universities, have entered a new phase of civil disobedience.”
The German newspaper estimates that the turning point came after the June 28 protests and the clashes between police and demonstrators that followed. “On June 29, after a stormy night, things initially remained calm. The autocrat Vučić declared victory and the students counted the bloody heads and those arrested. But then in the evening, within an hour, the whole of Belgrade was blocked, which affected the most important intersections and bridges over the Sava River. These blockades have continued.”
Belgrade blockades
"The method is peaceful and innovative, and it is driving the completely powerless police crazy," the newspaper writes.
“Groups of citizens block roads and erect barricades in their neighborhoods. When the police arrive, they obey the order to leave, leave the clearing of the barricades to the police, and wait until they leave. When that happens, everything starts over. The police are completely overwhelmed. Meanwhile, it is scorching hot. The police in helmets and equipment are not only exhausted, but also feel humiliated by this cat-and-mouse game.”
Tagesspiegel concludes: “The autocracy is faltering. A 20-year-old student summed it up this way: 'There is nothing more dangerous for an authoritarian regime than when citizens no longer fear it and when they mock the autocrats.'”/DW
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