BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president announced Sunday more arrests of anti-government protesters following clashes with police at a massive rally demanding an early parliamentary election. Dozens have already been detained.

Aleksandar Vucic, at a press conference, accused organizers of Saturday’s student-led protest in the capital, Belgrade, of inciting violence and attacks on police, urging legal prosecution. He also criticized “terrorists and those who tried to bring down the state,” singling out University of Belgrade’s head dean, Vladan Djokic, who was among the protesters.

Tens of thousands of people attended the rally held after nearly eight months of persistent dissent, which has rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country. Protesters also declared the current populist government “illegitimate” and laid the responsibility for any violence on the government.

READ MORE: Lawmakers in Serbia elect new government with pro-Russia ministers sanctioned by U.S.

Clashes with riot police erupted after the official part of the rally ended. Police used pepper spray, batons and shields while protesters threw rocks, bottles and other objects.

Police said on Sunday that 48 officers were injured while 22 protesters sought medical help. Out of 77 people detained, 38 remain in custody, most of whom are facing criminal charges, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

“There will be more arrests,” Vucic said. “Identification of all individuals is underway.”

Vucic has repeatedly rejected an immediate snap vote instead of the one planned for 2027.

“Serbia won. You cannot destroy Serbia with violence,” Vucic said Sunday. “They consciously wanted to spur bloodshed. The time of accountability is coming.”

Critics say Vucic has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power over a decade ago, stifling democratic freedoms while allowing corruption and organized crime to flourish. He has denied this.

Serbia is formally seeking European Union entry, but Vucic’s government has nourished its relations with both Russia and China.

University students playing a key role

At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to “take freedom into your own hands.”

University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.

Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.

“We are here today because we cannot take it any more,” student Darko Kovacevic said. “This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.”

Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify or provide evidence of.

Vucic’s authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia’s striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations.

While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday’s anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests.

Serbian police, who are firmly controlled by Vucic’s government, said 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest Saturday. An independent monitoring group that records public gatherings said around 140,000 people attended the student-led rally.

Saturday marked St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.

In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Vucic supporters bused in to Belgrade

Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.” They were joining a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.

In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists. “People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” he told reporters Saturday.

Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.

Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro.

Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.

Authorities made similar moves in March, before the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.

Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.

Saturday’s protest ended around 10 p.m., when some anti-government protesters moved to confront a counter-protest of Vučić’s backers, Reuters reported.

Police deployed scores of officers in riot gear around government buildings, parliament and nearby Pionirski Park. Protesters threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police, who used force to disperse them in several locations across Belgrade’s city center, according to media reports.

President Vučić wrote on his Instagram page that “you cannot defeat Serbia with violence”, and in a separate post commended police for their “patriotic, serious approach” to “defeat the attackers with minimal use of force.”

Almost 50 officers and more than 20 civilians were injured, Interior Minister Ivica Dačić told reporters in Belgrade on Sunday, Bloomberg reported.

Dačić condemned the violence, saying “police will take all measures to restore public order and peace and will repel all attacks.” After 77 protesters were arrested overnight, 38 remain behind bars pending criminal or misdemeanor charges, he said.

In a statement, students leading the protests accused the government of escalating of tensions. “They (authorities) … opted for violence and repression against the people. Every radicalization of the situation is their responsibility,” they wrote.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic insisted Sunday that he would not cave in to the 140,000 protesters who rallied in the capital overnight demanding early elections, while vowing more arrests after clashes broke out.

Saturday’s rally was one of the largest in more than half a year of demonstrations triggered by the roof collapse at a train station in the city of Novi Sad in November, killing 16 people — a disaster widely blamed on entrenched corruption.

Unlike previous gatherings, which took place without incident, clashes erupted between demonstrators and riot police.

“Serbia has won, and you cannot defeat Serbia by violence as some wanted,” Vucic said in a public address.

ADVERTISEMENT

He accused the student-led movement of causing “terror” and promised there would be more arrests over the violence.

AFP journalists saw riot police using tear gas and batons as protesters hurled flares and bottles at rows of officers in several clashes following the massive gathering in Belgrade.

Authorities said 48 officers were injured, one seriously, and put the crowd size at 36,000 — well below an independent estimate by the Archive of Public Gatherings of around 140,000.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said 22 people sought medical help, of whom two were seriously injured.

– ‘This is not the end’ –

Police detained 77 people, with 38 still in custody, according to Dacic.

“There will be many more arrested for attacking police… this is not the end,” Vucic said.

He added that there would be “no negotiations with terrorists and those who wanted to destroy the state — accountability follows”.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Revenge must not be our language, but responsibility must be part of our consciousness,” he said.

Later on Sunday, six people were arrested on accusations of several crimes, including planning to block roads and attack state institutions “in order to violently change the state order”, the Higher Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

An operation was ongoing, the statement said.

Protest organisers meanwhile called for the release of a “large number of citizens” and “numerous students”, and announced a rally in front of the prosecutor’s office.

“This is not a moment for withdrawal,” the protest group said on Instagram.

Ahead of Saturday’s protest, organisers had issued an “ultimatum” for Vucic to call elections — a demand he rejected well before the rally began.

On Sunday, he reiterated there would not be any national vote before the end of 2026.

ADVERTISEMENT

The outcry over the Novi Sad disaster has already led to the resignation of the country’s prime minister.

Yet the governing party has kept power, with a reshuffled administration and the president still in office.

Vucic has repeatedly alleged the protests are part of a foreign plot to destroy his government.

More than a dozen people have been arrested in recent weeks, a crackdown that has now become routine ahead of large demonstrations.

After the rally, organisers played a statement to the crowd calling for Serbians to “take freedom into your own hands” and giving them the “green light”.

“The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to meet the demands and prevent an escalation,” the organisers said in a statement on Instagram.

ljv/al/js

BELGRADE – Serbian police on Saturday evening clashed with anti-government protesters demanding snap elections and an end to the 12-year rule of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Police deployed scores of officers in riot gear around government buildings, parliament and nearby Pionirski Park, where throngs of Vucic’s backers from across the country gathered in a counter-protest.

After the protest ended at around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), some protesters who wanted to confront Vucic’s backers threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police, who used force to disperse them in several locations across Belgrade’s city centre.

The protesters shouted: “Keep the shields down,” calling on the police to stop intervening.

Police detained several dozen protesters, while six police officers were reported injured in clashes, Dragan Vasiljevic, the director of police, told a press conference late on Saturday.

Vucic said protesters attempted to topple the state. “They (protesters) wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed,” he wrote on his Instagram page.

In a statement, students accused the government of an escalation of tensions.

“They (authorities) … opted for violence and repression against the people. Every radicalisation of the situation is their responsibility,” students wrote on the X social network.

In a statement, Ivica Dacic, the interior minister, said police will act to maintain public order.

“The police will take all measures to establish public order and peace, … and apply all its powers to repel attacks, and arrest all those who attacked the police,” Dacic said.

Months of protests across the country, including university shutdowns, have rattled Vucic, a populist, whose second term ends in 2027, when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled.

Vucic’s opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, something they deny.

The protesters, who want the government to heed their demands by the end of the protest, have pledged non-violence.

Vucic has previously refused snap elections. His Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats.

Earlier on Saturday, Vucic said unspecified “foreign powers” were behind the protest. He said police should be restrained, but warned that violence will not be tolerated.

“The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice,” he told reporters in Belgrade.

Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said she came to support students.

“The institutions have been usurped and … there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don’t think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully,” she told Reuters.

In the days ahead of the protest, police arrested about a dozen anti-government activists, charging them with undermining the constitution and terrorism. All denied the charges.

Protests by students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on November 1 in a Novi Sad railway station roof collapse. Protesters blame corruption for the disaster.

The Belgrade rally coincides with St. Vitus Day, venerated by most Serbs, which marks the 1389 Battle of Kosovo with Ottoman Turks.

Out of 77 people arrested, 38 remain in custody, most of whom are now facing criminal charges.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said many more antigovernment protesters will be arrested, as clashes with police at a massive night-time rally demanding early parliamentary elections marked a crescendo of months-long public dissent.

At a news conference on Sunday, the populist leader accused the organisers of Saturday’s student-led protest in the capital, Belgrade, of inciting violence and attacks on police.

“There will be many more arrested for attacking police … this is not the end,” Vucic said, accusing the protesters of causing “terror”.

Clashes erupted after the official part of the rally ended. Police used pepper spray, batons and shields while protesters threw rocks, bottles and other objects.

Critics say Vucic has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago, having served as first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2014 and prime minister from 2014 to 2017 before becoming president, stultifying democratic freedoms while allowing corruption and organised crime to flourish. He denies the accusations.

Saturday’s rally was one of the largest in eight sustained months of demonstrations triggered by the roof collapse at a train station in the city of Novi Sad in November, killing 16 people – a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption.

Following the outcry over the disaster, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned, but the governing party continued in power, with a reshuffled government and Vucic still in office.

Authorities put the crowd size at 36,000 – well below an independent estimate by the Archive of Public Gatherings of about 140,000.

Advertisement

During his news conference, Vucic also criticised “terrorists and those who tried to bring down the state”, singling out University of Belgrade’s head dean, Vladan Djokic, who was among the protesters.

‘Take freedom into your own hands’

“Serbia won. You cannot destroy Serbia with violence,” said Vucic. “They consciously wanted to spur bloodshed. The time of accountability is coming.”

Protesters say the current populist government is “illegitimate” and lay the responsibility for any violence on the government.

Police said on Sunday that 48 officers were injured while 22 protesters sought medical help. Out of 77 people arrested, 38 remain in custody, most of whom are facing criminal charges, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

Before Saturday’s protest, organisers had issued an “ultimatum” for Vucic to call elections – a demand he has repeatedly rejected.

After the rally, organisers played a statement to the crowd calling for Serbians to “take freedom into your own hands” and giving them the “green light”.

“The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to meet the demands and prevent an escalation,” the organisers said in a statement on Instagram.

On Sunday, Vucic reiterated there would not be any national vote before the end of 2026.

He has repeatedly alleged the protests are part of a foreign plot to destroy his 12-year government, without providing any evidence.

More than a dozen people have been arrested in recent weeks, a crackdown that has now become routine in the face of large demonstrations.

Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but Vucic’s government has nurtured close relations with Russia and China.