site.btaProtesters Block Gazela Bridge in Belgrade

The Gazela Bridge, which crosses the Sava River in the Serbian capital Belgrade, was blocked in both directions Saturday evening.

Students, who earlier in the day blocked the Aviators' Square in the Belgrade district of Zemun, together with members of the public, headed towards the Gazela Bridge and stopped traffic on the E75 highway.

The blockade is a protest against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s intention to pardon a 25-year-old woman suspected of attempted murder, after she ran over student Kristina Vasiljevic with her car during a protest in New Belgrade on January 24 this year.

Kristina Vasiljevic addressed the crowd gathered on the Gazela Bridge.

“Today I am not here to seek pity or to call on you to empathize with me, but to point to something much bigger – the systemic injustice that humiliates us,” said Vasiljevic.

Earlier in July, Vucic pardoned four supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, who were facing prison sentences of up to 3 years for assaulting a group of students in Novi Sad with fists and baseball bats at the end of January. One of the female students had her jaw broken in the attack.

The then Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned over the attack.

One woman fainted during the blockade of the bridge and was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Center.

The main road to Uzice (Western Serbia), where there have been repeated blockades over the past 10 days, was closed again by protesting citizens. Protests also took place in Nis, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and Krusevac.

For the past eight months, citizens in Serbia have been protesting, demanding criminal and political accountability for the deaths of 16 people caused by the collapse of a concrete canopy at the train station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad last November. On multiple occasions during the protests and blockades, cars driven by people angry about the demonstrations have plowed into the gathered crowds—often during the 16 minutes of silence held to honor the 16 victims.

A wave of protests, led mainly by students, has swept across Serbia since the tragedy in Novi Sad and has become the biggest challenge in President Aleksandar Vucic’s political career.

At the beginning of May, students announced that they want early parliamentary elections to be called, in which they themselves will not run but will support a civic list featuring individuals who enjoy high public trust in Serbia.