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Serbia in turmoil: escalate protests - six police officers injured!
Violence escalates in Serbia: injured police officers and arrests in protests. A look at the background and developments.
Serbia in turmoil: escalate protests - six police officers injured!
The protests against the government do not tear off in Belgrade. On August 16, 2025, a date that further fueled the tensions in Serbia, there were severe riots in which six police officers were injured and 38 demonstrators were arrested. These latest unrest marks a new climax after the protests had experienced a relative calm in the past nine months. The confrontations between opponents of government, government supporters and the police are currently piling up every day.
Violence has its roots in an incident in the small town of Vrbas in the Vojvodina, where supporters of the Serbian progress party (SNS) confronted themselves with protesters. Fireworks, stones and ice bottles were used in these clashes. However, the authorities evaluate the events differently, which further fuel the anger of the SNS opponents. Dramatic scenes occurred in Valjevo, where a 16-year-old was brutally beaten up by several police officers.
Shocking measures and political reactions
A video shows about 20 young people kneeling in a police station, face to the wall and hands on their backs. President Aleksandar Vučić tries to distance himself from the dictator image, but has taken numerous competencies from the Prime Minister to his own control. Prime Minister Djuro Macut has been largely invisible since mid -April.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic is under increasing pressure because criticism of his leadership style becomes sound within his party. Goran Trivan from the Socialist Party (SPS) urgently calls for reforms and has already brought parliamentary elections into conversation. The background to the political crisis is the tragic slump in the station advantage on November 1 of the previous year, in which 16 people died. This incident is attributed to corruption during renovation work and has greatly shaken confidence in the government.
The developments in Serbia show how profound dissatisfaction with the government is. The daily clashes and the increasing violence indicate that the political tensions are not new, but are worrying in this intensity. Observers fear that the situation could continue to escalate if the government is not determined and responds to the demands of the protesters.