Supporters of four right-wing Serbian opposition parliamentary parties on March 24 demonstrated in Belgrade, blocking traffic and demanding the government reject a plan agreed last weekend by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the process of normalizing relations between their two countries.
Protesters also called for Vucic's resignation and early elections.
Banners saying "No to capitulation," "Serbia remembers," and "Resignation to Vucic" were unfurled in front of the government's headquarters. Some of the protesters wore T-shirts sporting the letter Z, a symbol used by Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine.
"The government of the Republic of Serbia and Vucic do not have a mandate to negotiate the handover of Kosovo," Nikola Dragicevic of the right-wing Zavetnici party said in addressing the media in front of the government building.
The protest started symbolically at 12:44 p.m. UN Resolution 1244, passed by the Security Council in June 1999, authorized the deployment of an international civilian and military presence whose mission was to provide a transitional administration in Kosovo and oversee the development of democratic institutions.
The date of the protest -- March 24 -- was also the 24th anniversary of the start of a 78-day NATO bombing campaign that drove Serbian forces out of Kosovo.
The right-wing parliamentary parties that took part in the protest maintain close ties with Russia, and their representatives traveled to Moscow in recent months.
The parties have 28 out of 250 deputies in parliament. Representatives of the group consider the EU and U.S.-backed agreement between Vucic and Kurti an ultimatum for recognition of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.
The plan envisages normalization of relations without formal recognition. It calls for Serbia to no longer block Kosovo's participation in international organizations, while Kosovo would allow the formation of the Community of Municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo.
At a meeting in Ohrid, North Macedonia, on March 18, Vucic and Kurti agreed on ways to implement the deal. Although Vucic and Kurti did not sign any documents in Ohrid, European mediators expect the parties to implement all articles of the agreement.
The United States and most EU countries recognize Kosovo’s independence, but Belgrade, Russia, and China do not. Serbia still claims Kosovo as its territory.