2018–2020 Serbian protests
In late 2018, a series of largely peaceful protests (called Stop Bloody Shirts, Serbian: Стоп крвавим кошуљама, romanized: Stop krvavim košuljama; or One of Five Million, 1 of 5 Million, #1of5million, Serbian: Један од пет милиона, 1 од 5 милиона, #1од5милиона, romanized: Jedan od pet miliona, 1 od 5 miliona, #1od5miliona) over the rise of political violence and against the authoritarian rule of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his governing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) began to take place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade,[3] soon spreading to cities across the country, as well as in cities with the Serbian diaspora. The demonstrations have lasted more than a year and they become the most prolonged mass anti-government demonstrations in Serbia since the time of the Bulldozer Revolution and some of the longest-running in Europe.
2018–2020 Serbian protests
30 November 2018 – 16 March 2020
(1 year, 3 months, 1 week and 3 days)
Demonstrations, civil disobedience, civil resistance, riot, occupation of administrative buildings, internet activism
- Opposition signs Agreement with people, starting a boycott of legislative bodies
- Presentation of expert negotiating team, publication of recommendations on media and election conditions
- The European Parliament-mediated dialogue on election conditions
- The University of Belgrade annulled Siniša Mali's PhD title
- The major opposition political subjects boycotted the 2020 election
The protests were precipitated by an assault on an opposition non-parliamentary politician Borko Stefanović in November 2018.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The protests were also triggered by many scandals of ruling party members, such as sexual harassment at work, assaults on investigative journalists, a plagiarism scandal, the arrest of whistleblower who uncovered the arms trade that allegedly ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters in Yemen, as well as the smear campaign and the unsolved murder of Kosovo Serb opposition leader Oliver Ivanović.[13][14][15][16][17][18]
Parallel to the protests, Vučić launched a campaign "Future of Serbia", organizing rallies in all districts of Serbia, while the pro-government media have constantly demonized protesters and opposition leaders, linking them to fascism as well, spreading misinformation to their readers.[19][20] Twitter announced that they shut down the network of 8,500 spam accounts that wrote 43 million tweets – acted in concert to cheerlead for president Vučić and his party and attack his opponent, including those involved in the protests.[21]
The non-partisan expert group formulated the demands of the protests, concluded there were no conditions for free and fair elections, and drafted a comprehensive document with demands and recommendations. The protest resulted in inter-party European Parliament-mediated negotiations, but the largest opposition parties announced a boycott of the coming elections due to lack of press freedom and fair electoral conditions. Since February 2020, protests have continued with more significant involvement of opposition parties with key messages to boycott the election.
Protests were suspended in March 2020 over the coronavirus pandemic. Some further and more sporadic gatherings, with heterogeneous demands started in April 2020.[22] Many opposition parties boycotted the elections in June, while less than half the electorate turned out and ruling parties won more than two-thirds of the votes.