BELGRADE -- Serbian police have begun clearing barricades from streets in Belgrade after thousands of anti-government protesters, led by students, had blocked roads and bridges demanding the release of fellow demonstrators detained earlier by police.
The police operation on June 30 came amid accusations from protesters of excessive force, which authorities rejected, saying they acted “with high professionalism.” The number of arrests during the clearing operation has not been disclosed.
The student-led protesters had set up metal fences and trash barrels throughout the capital, Belgrade, and blocked city's Gazelle Bridge, a major link over the Sava River.
News agencies reported that protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad -- where the current round of antigovernment demonstrations began eight months ago -- besieged the offices of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), tossing eggs at the building.
Violent Arrests As Protesters Blockade Belgrade, Other Serbian Cities
A website set up by student organizers said that 30 spots in the capital were barricaded and that similar actions were taking place in at least 22 other Serbian cities.
Student-led protests have intensified after law enforcement officers began detaining participants in a massive rally in Belgrade on June 28.
Vucic said law enforcement agencies were set to make “many more arrests.”
Antigovernment crowds returned to the streets late on June 29, demanding the release of the dozens of people detained on the first night.
"They need to release the detainees. It is ugly how the government treats young people. We want to live in a free country, as the students demand," Gordana Ataljanc told RFE/RL.
"We are appealing to the authorities to start doing their job. To arrest those really responsible for the violence. Last night they beat people, they caught whoever showed up," Milan Antonijevic told RFE/RL.
A journalist from RFE/RL reported that hundreds of people were blocking a key intersection in Belgrade's Autokomanda neighborhood in an action organized by residents of the nearby Vozdovac .
Sanja, a student at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, told RFE/RL that she came to the protest to continue "the fight for a legal, orderly state."
Prosecutors said the detainees were being held for up to 48 hours for committing violence and attacking police in the capital, Belgrade, during the mass, student-led protests, which were attended by an estimated 140,000 people.
For the past eight months, thousands of Serbians, often led by student groups but increasingly joined by others, have taken to the streets in protest against Vucic and his government.
The November 1 collapse of the Novi Sad Railway Station cement canopy that killed 16 people triggered one of the country’s largest protest movements in recent memory.
Protesters alleged that the tragedy was caused by official corruption and incompetence, and the demonstrations quickly spread to more general anger against Vucic, whose term five-year term is due to end in 2027.
He has been president since 2017 and was prime minister for three years beforehand.
Parliamentary elections are also scheduled for late next year.
Vucic and his government have denied allegations of corruption and said it was investigating the deadly Novi Sad incident, with nearly a dozen officials arrested in the probes.
Smaller groups of government supporters have also taken to the streets of Belgrade over the weekend.
Vucic, who is attempting to balance his ties with traditional ally Russia and the West -- with an eye on eventual EU membership -- accused unnamed "foreign powers" as being behind the latest protests.
"The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice,” he told reporters after the first night of protests.
