BELGRADE (Reuters) -Anti-government protesters demolished the offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the northern city of Novi Sad and clashed with police and SNS supporters in the capital Belgrade on Thursday, a day after violent unrest left dozens injured.
In Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, police and SNS supporters loyal to populist President Aleksandar Vucic were absent as dozens of anti-government protesters smashed the windows of the party’s offices, threw out furniture and SNS paraphernalia, and splashed paint across the entrance.
“He’s gone,” protesters chanted in unison, referring to Vucic’s 13-year-long rule.
Daily protests across Serbia, sparked by the deaths of 16 people when the roof of a renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed last November, have rattled the popularity of Vucic and the SNS.
Similar protests were held in towns across the country.
In Belgrade, hundreds of protesters and SNS supporters threw flares and firecrackers at each other on one of the city’s main boulevards.
Police in full riot gear charged the anti-government protesters in an effort to force them to move from the area, a Reuters witness said.
Vucic pledged more arrests after the protests.
“I think it is clear they did not want peace and Ghandian protests. There will be more arrests,” he said in a live broadcast by Belgrade-based private Informer TV.
Earlier on Thursday, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that 27 police officers and around 80 civilians were injured in Wednesday’s clashes, and 47 people had been detained.
Protesters have blamed corruption for the Novi Sad railway station disaster and are demanding early elections in hopes of ousting Vucic and his party.
Students, opposition groups, and anti-corruption watchdogs have accused Vucic and his allies of ties to organized crime, using violence against political rivals, and suppressing media freedoms—allegations they deny.
(Reporting by Fedja Grulovic and Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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