Foreign media report on Serbs' anti-regime 'Noise against Dictatorship' protest

The Initiative 'Don't Let Belgrade Drown' and 'Civil Front' called on people to bang pots, blow whistles and play loud music every night after traditional applause for the medical staff fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The protest is against the Government's strict measures during the epidemic. Many saw them as disproportional and a result of the state's unreadiness at the outbreak of the epidemic.

However, Reuters said that "the protests also express many people's discontent with the policies of President Aleksandar Vucic, a former nationalist firebrand and former information minister under (Serbia's late President Slobodan) Milosevic who later adopted pro-European values, and with his Serbian Progressive Party."

The agency cited Dragan Djilas, an opposition leader and former Mayor of Belgrade, who said that "this energy (from the 1990s) has re-emerged as the people cannot endure any longer ... these lockdowns, these 80-hour incarcerations."

But not many would agree with the comparison expect regarding the means of the protest. Then,  people made noise during the state RTS TV because of its biased reporting.

And in the 1990s, people jammed the streets for 88 days protesting what was seen as an election fraud by Milosevic's regime.

In the end, the authorities had to admit they lost elections in the majority of central cities and that marked the beginning of the end of Milosevic's rule.

These days, limited by the curfew, people can protest from their windows and balconies, but the question remains whether it would be enough energy to go out in a protest after the state of emergency.

The main opposition parties, including Djilas' Party of Freedom and Justice (SPP), have said they will boycott the general vote supposed to have taken place in April, but had to be postponed to a later date due to the pandemic.

They say the conditions for fair and free elections don't exist, especially regarding media freedom, since the regime controls the majority of outlets.

The opposition also accuses Vucic and his party of conducting the election campaign despite an agreement that the politics would be put aside during the state of emergency.

Still, political analysts believe that the opposition hasn't used the opportunity created by the pandemic to criticise the authorities more sharply.

The opposition has reacted by proposing specific measures the authorities have overlooked, like time for walking dogs and time out for people over 65 years of age whose movements were banned 24/7, as well as an unlimited time out for children and people with autism and others with special needs. The regime accepted those proposals, but many thought it was not enough on the part of the opposition.

On Thursday, the leaders of the parties who said would boycott the vote gathered outside the Parliament building in Belgrade during the curfew in a protest against what they said was an unconstitutional introduction of the state of emergency and unequal treatment of all people in the country.

Though not invited, some residents joined the protest, in violation of the curfew. The police did not react, and a group of older residents also came out to protest against the opposition, especially chanting abuses against Djilas.

Many independent analysts and even some politicians accuse the regime of dividing people by organising its supporters to counter the opposition and civil protests and warn about the danger of much more severe conflicts.