Central Belgrade closed down for weekend gatherings

Vucic’s gatherings will be held under the titles Belgrade Family Days and Not Giving Up Serbia. The president is planning to set up the Movement for the State and People at the gatherings. The center of the Serbian capital will be virtually closed to traffic over the weekend. Public transport has been re-directed and streets around the Serbian Parliament and central Slavija Square will be closed.

Make-shift white tents have been put up on the street outside parliament in front of a large stage.

The opposition is claiming that the gatherings are an attempt to counter the months of protests and mass gatherings by students and their supporters following the Novi Sad Railway Station tragedy which claimed 16 lives. Some politicians and analysts are saying the gathering recalls the Milosevic-era counter-rally organized in response to months of protests in Belgrade by the opposition in the mid-1990s.

Tractors were escorted into the city by the police overnight to be deployed around the park outside the Serbian Presidency building where regime supporters have been camping in tents since mid-March. Vucic went on a late-night visit to the camp on Thursday, accompanied by pro-regime media crews.