site.btaAleksandar Vucic: "I Extend a Hand to Those Who Threaten Serbia with Violence"

On March 24, 2025, at a commemorative event for the victims of the NATO bombings 26 years ago, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he "extends a hand to those who threaten the country with violence and called on his supporters to respond with patience to the protests in Serbia".

“Thank you for not hating and when you see those who hate us, please do not respond with hatred and violence. I am the President of Serbia, and we extend our hand to those who threaten us with violence, we will bring back peace, stability and order to Serbia,” Vucic said on Monday night, quoted by Serbian media.

For more than four months mass protests have been held in Serbia, organized mainly by university students on the occasion of the tragedy in Novi Sad, where 16 people died after the canopy of the recently renovated railway station collapsed. Because of the incident, the protesters accuse the government and President Vucic in corruption and nepotism.

The Serbian Head of State took part in a commemorative event for the victims of the NATO bombings 26 years ago, held at the Colonel Milenko Pavlovic Airport in Batajnica, near Belgrade.

“They killed our children, we will not forget it and we should not forget it, but as our patriarch [Porfirije] said, we must forgive, but never forget,” Aleksandar Vucic said.

The President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik attended the commemorative event. He called the protests in Serbia “pointless,” Serbian Television RTS reported.

“Today it is important for Serbia to go back to itself, to gain power and to become strong again, to end the senseless and purposeless gatherings that take the strength away,” Dodic said.

“President Aleksandar Vucic is the only one who can restore power and bring back order in Serbia. After the bombings the country was lost. Those who stop Serbia today are wrong. Tons of depleted uranium were dropped [during the bombings] and we’re still recovering,” Dodic added on Monday night at the commemorative event in Batajnica.

The aerial bombing campaign of the Alliance against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began on March 24, 1999. It ended on June 11 the same year. It put an end to the conflict in Kosovo between the regime of Serb nationalist Slobodan Milosevic and the aspiring for independence Kosovo Albanian fighters.

Serb media write that according to different sources because of the NATO air strikes 26 years ago in Yugoslavia 2500 civilians and around 1000 army soldiers and police officers were killed, Serb media report.