Belgrade

A number of protesters have been arrested, but police have not shared the exact number.

Serbian police have cleared barricades set up by protesters in the capital after a weekend of antigovernment demonstrations that led to clashes with the police and captured an outpouring of months-long public dissent against the government.

On Monday, police removed metal fences and moved rubbish containers that had been blocking traffic in Belgrade’s Zemun district, while several dozen protesters chanted antigovernment slogans and declared they would return to the streets.

In a statement, the police said many people had been arrested but did not give their number. Their arrest has fuelled anger among those demonstrating against a populist government it accuses of authoritarian policies.

Protesters have called for the immediate release of those accused of attacking the police or plotting to overthrow the government.

President Aleksandar Vucic, who has promised a crackdown on protesters, praised the police action during a visit to Spain on Monday and said, “Citizens should not worry, the state is strong enough to secure law and order.”

Over the past eight months, student-led protests have taken place nearly daily after the collapse of a train station roof killed 16 people in November in the city of Novi Sad.

While the incident followed renovation work at the station, it has been widely blamed on poor construction and endemic corruption in the corridors of power.

On Saturday, an estimated 140,000 people rallied in Belgrade, in one of the largest demonstrations in the past few months, calling for a snap election to oust Vucic’s right-wing government. Authorities have, however, disputed the strength of the crowd, saying only about 36,000 people were demonstrating.

During the protest, some protesters clashed with the police, with nearly 50 officers and 22 protesters injured. Riot police used batons, pepper spray and shields to charge at demonstrators who threw rocks, among other objects.

The police said about 40 people face criminal charges over the clash. Serbian authorities arrested at least eight university students, accusing them of planning attacks on state institutions.

Following the November disaster, public outcry triggered the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of the government.

Still, Vucic reshuffled his cabinet and formed a new government, refusing to announce a snap election ahead of its scheduled 2027 date.

The president accused “foreign powers” of orchestrating the Saturday protest and said protesters had been trying to “topple Serbia” but failed.

A close neighbour, Russia, commented on the protests on Monday and said the demonstrations could be an attempted “colour revolution”, a likely reference to Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution.

“We have no doubt that the current Serbian leadership will be able to restore law and order in the republic in the very near future,” it added.

Vucic is regarded as a close ally of Moscow and was in the country on May 9 for the Red Square military parade, the most sacrosanct date on the Russian calendar, held to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany’s Third Reich in World War II.

June 28 (UPI) — Serbian police clashed with some protesters who marched in Belgrade on Saturday, while demanding an early election to replace President Aleksander Vucic and seat a new government.

The protest was scheduled from 6 p.m. to 9 local time but lasted about an hour longer, and some protesters threw flares at riot police, who were carrying shields and batons and at times used tear gas on protesters.

“There were clashes between police and protesters in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade on Saturday night as police tried to ensure security for a pro-government encampment near the national parliament,” the Balkan Insight news outlet reported on X.

Student organizers billed the event as the “See you on Vidovdan” protest, which drew tens of thousands of participants. Vidodvan is a Serbian national and religious holiday.

Before the protest got underway, Vucic on Saturday said he anticipated some violence, the Sarajevo Times reported.

“It is impossible for someone to invest huge money against a country without at least trying something,” Vucic said.

The Serbian president said a “lot of evil has been done to Serbia” by anti-government protests, which he called a “mistake.”

“Serbia is very strong. This is not a handful of oats that every crow is a pretty to,” Vucic said.

“We will do our best to be restrained,” he added. “The state will be preserved and defended, and the bullies will be brought to justice.”

Vucic said government and police officials anticipated violence occurring around the same time the protest was scheduled to end and were ready to handle it.

The protest organizers previously demanded early elections by Saturday.

President Vucic maintains hold on power after eight months of protests over roof crash that critics allege was linked to graft.

Tens of thousands of anticorruption protesters have taken to the streets of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, demanding an early election in a bid to end the 12-year rule of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Large numbers of officers in riot gear were deployed to police Saturday’s protests, which were organised by Serbia’s university students.

The students were a driving force behind nationwide demonstrations that started nearly eight months ago after the deadly collapse of a renovated concrete rail station roof in the northern city of Novi Sad killed 16 people.

The tragedy last November became a flashpoint for frustrations with the government, with many Serbians saying that it had been caused by alleged corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects.

Under pressure, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned at the start of this year, but Vucic remains in power.

Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from travelling to Belgrade for the rally.

Hours before the rally at Slavija Square and Nemanjina Avenue, Vucic’s party sent in buses of its own supporters from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia”.

They were joining loyalists who have been camping near Vucic’s office in central Belgrade since mid-March.

Vucic, a populist whose Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats, told reporters on Saturday that unspecified “foreign powers” were behind the protest. He said police should be restrained, but warned that “thugs will face justice”.

Vucic has previously refused snap elections and has been intent on continuing his second term, which ends in 2027, when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled.

But his hold on power has been rattled, with opponents accusing him and allies of ties to organised crime, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms – charges they deny.

Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theatre director from Montenegro.

Between honour and necessity is to address the 2025 Ocean Congress in Nice. It comes at brewing times of fragilities and re-alignments (when the new didn’t come and the old is questioned), when our global maritime community is confronting an unprecedented convergence of environmental vulnerability, geopolitical tension, and urgent developmental needs—particularly in the Global South.

The oceans are not simply blue frontiers. They are connective tissues of human civilization—lifelines for nations whose survival, identity, and continuity are shaped by their intimate proximity to the sea. Nowhere is this more palpable than among the small island developing states (SIDS), and the extensive coastline and archipelagic countries of the Global South.

These nations, despite their cultural wealth and ecological significance, exist today at a precarious confluence of political, socio-economic, culturo-demograpic, geomorphological and ecological fragility. Rising sea levels, eroding coastlines, disappearing freshwater lenses, increasingly frequent storm surges, and tectonic instability are daily realities. Yet, alongside these physical threats, these nations also grapple with communications isolation, limited access to undersea data cables, sparse maritime infrastructure, and digital marginalization—all of which stymie their development and weaken their voice in multilateral fora.

Beyond the waves lies another invisible but equally powerful divide: the digital divide—manifested in limited access to oceanographic data, inadequate satellite coverage, and the absence of meaningful participation in global data governance frameworks. This exclusion undermines data sovereignty – as a part of other exclusive indigenous socio-political, economic and cultural rights spirited by the UN Charter, and risks relegating entire nations to the periphery of the emerging AI-driven world order.

As the international community rapidly integrates artificial intelligence into climate modelling, disaster preparedness, and marine resource management, it becomes vital to ensure that AI technologies are not imposed as top-down instruments of algorithmic hegemony, but rather developed in balance—ethically, equitably, and inclusively.

In this context, we must view data sovereignty not as a luxury, but as a necessity—particularly for nations whose future hinges on their ability to manage maritime resources, assert control over their economic zones, and participate in the digital blue economy.

It is here that we must revisit the foundational principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), eloquently articulated by thinkers such as prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, who has long emphasized the need for a truly inclusive multilateralism—anchored in dignity, balance, and the sovereign equality of nations. He reminds us that NAM was never merely a Cold War relic, but a permanent call for structural justice, long-searched gate to the Kantian harmony, a global platform for states striving to avoid entrapment in the rivalries of great powers —now including digital and technological empires.

Today, as we face the climate-ocean-AI emergency, the message of the Non-Aligned Movement is more relevant than ever. It must evolve from a geopolitical posture into a solidarity framework encompassing climate, oceans, data, and AI—enabling the most vulnerable nations to exert agency over both their physical and digital sovereignty.

The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES), headquartered on the territory of the former Yugoslavia—one of the principal initiators of the Non-Aligned Movement—stands committed to this agenda. Through its forthcoming Global Academy for Geo-politico-Tech Futures (GPTF) and its ongoing flagship program “Understanding AI”, IFIMES and its consortium of international partners (many of which come from Global South) remains at the disposal of the Global South. These initiatives aim to democratize access to technological foresight, strengthen geopolitical literacy, and promote ethical AI development tailored to the needs of developing and emerging economies.

Furthermore, IFIMES fully supports the efforts of the Group of 77, and continues to serve as a true European friend to the Global South—not in word alone, but through concrete programs of engagement, education, and empowerment. Back in Belgrade of 1961, 13 out of 25 founding members were island, archipelagic and costal states, while already in Habana of 1979 – the Movement got 93 members, out of which over ¾ were the island, archipelagic and costal nations (74 of them). No other multilateral system was so prone to these states in history as much as it was NAM. As to keep up this spirit of 1961 Belgrade and NAM,

We call for:

• Decisive and impartial protection of UNCLOS universal regime;
• The protection of marine biota of warm and cold seas, and indigenous way of life of the costal groups, inducing the Arctic circle vulnerable groups;
• Enhanced South-South scientific cooperation on oceanographic, socio-political, and connectivity research;
• The development of inclusive economic – blue, socio-cultural and digital – strategies for all, particularly for the small-island, archipelagic and the extensive costal-line nations;
  • Protection from overtourism and other forms of overexplotations (assistance in politico-diplomatic actions, research, trainings);
• The protection of undersea cables and marine communication routes as critical global commons but also balancing it for the environmental balance;
• The recognition of data sovereignty and algorithmic equity as pillars of ocean governance, including a globally balanced AI ecosystem, reflective of diverse civilizational voices—not just dominant technological blocs;
• Right to (Digital) regret, and the right for analogue dignity.

Let us remember: the oceans bind us in shared destiny, not just in shared danger. For the communities of the littoral world, justice is not an abstraction—it is measured in coastlines, in coral reefs, in connectivity and code, in tides that do not wash homes—or cultures—away.

This 2025 Nice High Level Summit, therefore, must not only map the ocean—it must map a new moral geography of solidarity, rooted in science, sovereignty, and non-aligned cooperation—analogue and digital alike.

As our professors says: “Harmony of the everlasting peace is our destination, but the journey is called NAM”!