2023–2024 Serbian Election Protests

The protests have been organised by the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition, which called for the annulment of the election results.

2023–2024 Serbian election protests
Part of 2023 Serbian parliamentary election and 2023 Belgrade City Assembly election
Demonstrators on 24 December 2023
Date	18 December 2023 – present (4 months, 1 week and 2 days)
Location	Belgrade, Serbia
Caused by	Suspected electoral fraud in the 2023 parliamentary and Belgrade City Assembly elections
Goals	Annulment of the results of the 2023 elections
Methods	Demonstrations hunger strike riots civil roadblocks civil disorder civil disobedience
Resulted in	New elections called by the ruling party
Parties
Anti-government protesters Citizens Opposition organisations Serbia Against Violence Students Against Violence/Struggle Government of Serbia Police Government parties Serbian Progressive Party Socialist Party of Serbia
Lead figures
Dragan Đilas Marinika Tepić Miroslav Aleksić Vladimir Obradović Srđan Milivojević Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta Radomir Lazović Aleksandar Vučić Ana Brnabić Aleksandar Šapić Bratislav Gašić
Casualties
Injuries	7 police officers severely injured
Arrested	38 protesters arrested

According to monitoring and non-governmental organisations, the election day was marked with electoral fraud. This prompted SPN to organise protests, which began on 18 December. Since then, seven representatives of SPN began a hunger strike, demanding the annulment of the election results. Marinika Tepić has been on a hunger strike since the beginning of the protests. An unsuccessful attempt to enter the building of the City Assembly of Belgrade violently occurred on 24 December. The riot resulted in the arrest of 38 demonstrators.

A populist coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) came to power after the 2012 parliamentary election, along with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). In May 2023, a school shooting occurred in the Vračar municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and a mass murder in the villages of Dubona, Mladenovac and Malo Orašje, Smederevo. Mass protests, named Serbia Against Violence, began shortly after the shootings. These protests lasted until November 2023.

Amidst the protests, opposition parties organising the protests formed the Serbia Against Violence coalition for the parliamentary, Vojvodina provincial, and Belgrade City Assembly elections, which were scheduled for 17 December 2023. The elections on 17 December were marked with electoral fraud, according to reports of those who monitored the elections, including CeSID, CRTA, and Kreni-Promeni organisations. Among the irregularities reported by domestic and international observers were vote buying and ballot-box stuffing. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) stated that the electoral campaign was characterized by "harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources". The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights concluded that SNS had a "systematic advantage which created unfair conditions in the elections" and that Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, heavily dominated the election campaign, despite not being a candidate in it. Stefan Schennach [de], the chief of the delegation of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that monitored the elections, said that "the elections were not fair" and that "the victory in Belgrade was stolen from the opposition". Vučić and SNS denied all of the electoral fraud allegations. Ana Brnabić, the prime minister of Serbia, accused the opposition and CRTA of "destabilising Serbia and its constitutional order".

First week

The first protest was organised by SPN outside of the building of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) on 18 December. At the protest, SPN announced that they would reject the Belgrade City Assembly election results, citing irregularities that took place during the election, while they also demanded the annulment of the election results and the "cleaning" and updating of the voters list. Marinika Tepić and Miroslav Aleksić, the main representatives of SPN, announced that they would go on a hunger strike until their demands are to be accepted; Aleksić, however, later announced that he would go on a "strict fast" instead of a hunger strike. Tepić continued her hunger strike inside the RIK building. The protest was met with a few incidents; a group of demonstrators that gathered at the protest threw eggs, tomatoes, and toilet papers at the RIK building. Miladin Kovačević, the director of the Republic Bureau of Statistics, was also physically attacked by a demonstrator. The police heavily guarded the building during the protest.

Protests continued to be organised by SPN outside the RIK building; they were also joined by the Students Against Violence organisation, which renamed itself to Struggle (Borba) amidst the protests. The second protest was also attended by former rector of the University of Belgrade Ivanka Popović, judge Miodrag Majić, and actors Svetlana Bojković and Dragan Bjelogrlić, all of whom initiated ProGlas during the 2023 election campaign, to boost the turnout of the elections. At the third protest, held on 20 December, SPN expanded their demands by calling for the annulment of all elections held on 17 December. Members of the National Assembly of Serbia Jelena Milošević and Danijela Grujić began their hunger strike at the protest on 21 December. At the same protest, SPN representatives called for the European Union to not accept the results and conduct an international investigation. Besides the protest in Belgrade, there was also a protest in Niš on 22 December. Janko Veselinović and Željko Veselinović also began their hunger strike on 22 December. At the protest a day later, Branko Miljuš and Dušan Nikezić, who were elected to the National Assembly in the 2023 election on behalf of SPN, also began their hunger strike.

According to the Archive of Public Gatherings, which is presided by journalist Aleksandar Gubaš, the protest on 24 December was attended by approximately 7,100 demonstrators; Vučić claimed that only 2,490 demonstrators were present at the protest. The protest was announced by Aleksić two days prior due to the deadline for the annulment of the election results. The protest began again in front of the RIK building where Tepić, Aleksić, Srđan Milivojević, and Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta gave their speeches. Aleksić called for the demonstrators to circle the building of the City Assembly of Belgrade while that Vladimir Obradović, a member of the Temporary Council of Belgrade, and other councillors would enter the building to give a speech from a balcony inside the building. The building was however armed inside with the police and gendarmery, which did not allow Obradović, Aleksić, and Milivojević to enter the building.

A group of demonstrators set off a riot at the protest and they tried to enter the building violently. In response to the attempt to enter the building of the City Assembly of Belgrade, Vučić issued an urgent statement, saying that it was an attempt to overthrow the government. Police brutality was seen later in the protest; the police and gendarmery attacked demonstrators and used tear gas, pepper spray, and baton. Out of opposition representatives, Ćuta was hit with tear gas while Radomir Lazović and Željko Vagić, the president of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) board in the Belgrade municipality of Grocka, were attacked by the gendarmery. Aleksandar Šapić, the president of the Temporary Council of Belgrade and former mayor of Belgrade, gave a press conference inside the City Assembly building once the protest ended.

Dragan Đilas, the president of SSP, claimed that the rioters were sent by a group of convicted criminal Đorđe Prelić; Đilas also alleged that Šapić had connections to Prelić, though, Šapić denied this. The head of the Police Administration, Ivica Ivković, accused SPN of being behind the riot. Ivković informed that 38 demonstrators were arrested and the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed that 7 police officers were injured.

Second week

Roadblocks organised by the Students Against Violence organisation were held in front of the building of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MDULS) and later in the Kneza Miloša Street on 25 December. Another protest organised by SPN was held on the same day.

Domestic reactions

Government

Vladimir Dimitrijević, the president of RIK, said that RIK and the Belgrade City Election Commission do not have the right to annul the Belgrade City Assembly elections and that they could instead only annul the results at certain voting stations. MDULS also said that the voters list is up-to-date and declined the claim that "phantom voters" exist.

Commenting on Tepić's hunger strike, Vučić said that "she is free to stop her hunger strike and get back to her duties" and reminded that Tomislav Nikolić's hunger strike in 2011 "did not achieve anything but it only deteriorated his health". Amidst the 24 December protest, Ivica Dačić, the deputy prime minister and president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, said that "Socialist Party of Serbia and I, as its president, strongly condemn the attempt to forcibly occupy the City Assembly of Belgrade". Šapić said that the election protests "are the beginning of a civil war" and compared them to Euromaidan. Brnabić also compared the protests to Euromaidan.

Opposition

Besides SPN, opposition parties and coalitions such as the National Democratic Alternative (NADA), People's Party, Social Democratic Party, and Dveri expressed their support for rejecting the 2023 election results. Miloš Jovanović, one of the representative of the NADA coalition, expressed his support for holding new elections and said that citizens have a right to resist and organise peaceful protests.

Foreign reactions

The protests were strongly criticised by Russia. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Vladimir Putin, accused foreign powers of staging the protests in Belgrade, while Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs of Russia, accused "the West of setting a fire to the already tense enough political situation in Serbia". Brnabić thanked the Russian Federal Security Service for providing information to the government of Serbia. After Vučić's meeting with Russian ambassador Alexander Bocan Harchenko on 25 December, Bocan Harchenko said that Vučić informed him that "the incitement to riots came from the West".