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.
President Aleksandar Vucic had earlier vowed many more protesters would be arrested, as 38 remain in custody.
Thousands of people have set up street blockades in Serbia, where tensions are boiling over after the arrest of antigovernment protesters who clashed with police at a massive night-time rally a day earlier that demanded early elections, marking a crescendo of months-long public dissent.
Protesters put up metal fences and garbage containers at various locations in the capital Belgrade late on Sunday into early Monday, also blocking a key bridge over the Sava River. Protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad pelted the offices of the ruling populist Serbian Progressive Party with eggs.
Serbian media said similar protest blockades were organised in smaller cities across the country.
Protesters are demanding that authorities release dozens of university students and others at the demonstration who were jailed for allegedly attacking the police or purportedly plotting to overthrow the government at Saturday’s student-led protest in Belgrade.
At a news conference earlier on Sunday, Serbia’s embattled populist leader Aleksandar Vucic accused the organisers of the protest of inciting violence and attacks on police.
“There will be many more arrested for attacking police … this is not the end,” Vucic said, accusing the protesters of causing “terror”.
Clashes erupted after the official part of the rally ended. Police used pepper spray, batons and shields while protesters threw rocks, bottles and other objects.
Critics say Vucic has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago, having served as first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2014 and prime minister from 2014 to 2017 before becoming president, stifling democratic freedoms while allowing corruption and organised crime to flourish. He denies the accusations.
Saturday’s rally was one of the largest in eight sustained months of demonstrations triggered by the roof collapse at a train station in the city of Novi Sad in November that killed 16 people – a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption.
Following the outcry over the disaster, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned, but the governing party continued in power, with a reshuffled government and Vucic still in office.
Authorities put the crowd’s size at 36,000 – well below an independent estimate by the Archive of Public Gatherings of about 140,000.
During his news conference, Vucic also criticised “terrorists and those who tried to bring down the state”, singling out University of Belgrade’s head dean, Vladan Djokic, who was among the protesters.
‘Take freedom into your own hands’
“Serbia won. You cannot destroy Serbia with violence,” said Vucic. “They consciously wanted to spur bloodshed. The time of accountability is coming.”
Protesters say the current populist government is “illegitimate” and lay the responsibility for any violence on the government.
Police said on Sunday that 48 officers were injured while 22 protesters sought medical help. Out of 77 people arrested, 38 remain in custody, most of whom are facing criminal charges, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.
Before Saturday’s protest, organisers had issued an “ultimatum” for Vucic to call elections – a demand he has repeatedly rejected.
After the rally, organisers played a statement to the crowd calling for Serbians to “take freedom into your own hands” and giving them the “green light”.
“The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to meet the demands and prevent an escalation,” the organisers said in a statement on Instagram.
On Sunday, Vucic reiterated that there would not be any national vote before the end of 2026.
He has repeatedly alleged the protests are part of a foreign plot to destroy his 12-year government, without providing any evidence.
More than a dozen people have been arrested in recent weeks, a crackdown that has now become routine in the face of large demonstrations.
Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but Vucic’s government has nurtured close relations with Russia and China.
Be glad you’re not Jeff Bezos or Lauren Sánchez. Sure, being that rich would be awesome, but being rich comes with rich-people problems. With their Italian wedding imminent, they have a host of things to worry about that would never cross the imaginations of other, more average couples who don’t have 12 digits representing their net worth.
Most details of the Venice fête are being kept close to the vest. A couple of local companies have confirmed they are contributing handcrafted glassware and local pastries to the wedding-favor goodie bags. Some guests’ names leaked when the invites went out in March (we name-drop below, never fear).
But a few details that might be quite vexing to the bride and groom are playing out in public. Let’s take a look.
Your destination wedding’s destination might hate you
All of Venice may not truly be ticked off, but photos, activists and media coverage make it seem that way.
Venice teacher and activist Marta Sottoriva called the wedding “the symbol of all that is wrong with Venice.”
“There’s a lot of anger in the air because once again the council has enslaved itself to the logic of profit — our city has been sold to the highest bidder,” she told the Guardian. “Every time an event of this kind happens, the city comes to a standstill, certain areas become inaccessible and even more tourists arrive.” (Venice has been really annoyed lately by its number of tourists, kind of like the Louvre is really annoyed.)
“No Space for Bezos” activists speak at a public meeting of residents on June 13 in Venice, Italy.
(Andrea Merola / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But tourism councilor Simone Venturini was shocked that anyone might be upset that such a high-profile event was happening in the city.
“We should all be proud that the Bezos wedding, an event of international importance, is being held in the waters of our lagoon,” he told the Guardian. “Instead, the usual protest professionals have wasted no time. We want to reiterate that Venice is open to everyone.”
Venturini was more colorful in speaking to the Wall Street Journal, saying, “If Bezos’ wedding goes ahead as planned, without these pain-in-the-ass protests, Venetian citizens won’t even notice.”
The couple’s London-based wedding planners, Lanza & Baucina, told CNN in a statement, “Rumors of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality.” They and the client, the planners said, wanted to minimize any disruption to the city.
That said, it’s impossible to get a reservation this week at the Aman Venice, the nearly 500-year-old hotel on the Grand Canal where the happy couple are rumored to be staying, at least for part of their wedding week, along with a host of wedding guests. The place is fully booked through Sunday, per TMZ, at a reported $2,000 to $10,000 a night per room.
Protests could really screw things up
Forget throwing soup on the “Mona Lisa” — the Bezos wedding protesters might do something truly offensive: They are threatening to screw up traffic on the big day.
“Bezos will never get to the Misericordia [event space],” activist Federica Toninello told an appreciative crowd last week, according to CNN. “We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.”
Having just learned what the Misericordia is, we have no idea what role the location might play in the nuptials, but it looks like a nice enough spot for a reception. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a cultural center built in 1951, has also been floated as a wedding venue. But let’s get back to the blockades and such.
Another speaker at that same rally said she didn’t want Venice remembered as a beautiful wedding venue but “as the city that did not bend to oligarchs.”
“We can’t miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding,” Na Haby Stella Faye said — because, really, how often does that chance come around? Although her goal stated at the rally was “to stop this wedding,” in her Instagram stories Monday, she was promoting a planned Saturday protest of Bezos, President Trump and, well, war.
A massive banner targeting Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is laid out in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, ahead of his wedding to Lauren Sánchez.
(Greenpeace / Associated Press)
Less aggressive protests include a host of banners and “No Space for Bezos” posters that have been hung around the city. A colossal message from Greenpeace to Bezos was laid out Monday in the Piazza San Marco. The square banner, which read “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX,” was quickly folded up and carried away by local cops, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s absurd to treat this city like it’s Disneyland,” said Grazia Satta, a retired teacher and social worker, per the Wall Street Journal. “The message this wedding sends is that rich people can do whatever they want. We shouldn’t kneel before wealth like this.”
By Monday, Bezos’ security team was making last-minute changes to try to outsmart the activists, according to TMZ. Even the water-taxi companies are being “kept in the dark,” the site said, and if the water taxis don’t know what’s going on, who really does?
Perhaps Bezos could tap that $212-billion bank account and enlist a Prime Delivery person to drop off himself and his bride discreetly at their reception? Though the human-size Amazon box could be a dead giveaway.
Whose yacht is biggest — and where will they park?
Yes, we know yachts don’t “park,” they drop anchor. But no matter what you call it, the biggest yachts can’t drop anchor in all parts of Venice.
One wedding theory has held that Bezos and Sánchez will exchange their vows on his 417-foot yacht, the Koru, where he proposed to her two years ago after five years of dating. But reported plans to dock the yacht in a lagoon might have changed. Apparently the close-to-shore concept is starting to look like a safety hazard due to those threatened protests of the second-richest man in the world.
The Koru is far from the only big boat floating around town, mind you. Venice has nine “yacht ports,” all of which have been booked for the wedding week. Apparently, TMZ reported, noncelebrity billionaire yacht owners are altering their Venice vacation plans to avoid the crush. That has to sting.
Fortunately, although the yacht situation is fluid and the airspace over Venice is closed, CNN reported that private helicopters are being given a pass, in case a head of state decides to chopper in. As one does.
One type of watercraft not involved in the festivities? Gondolas, or at least those piloted by people the WSJ talked to. “We are too slow,” one gondolier lamented.
International events might affect the guest list
President Trump reportedly scored an invitation to the wedding. Unclear if a plus-one for Melania was included. However, the commander in chief is a wee bit busy handling world events these days — hard to tell if he will be able to get away, even for a gala event like this one. Aren’t destination weddings the worst? So inconvenient.
That said, Ivanka Trump and hubby Jared Kushner reportedly got invited too, along with Jared’s brother Joshua Kushner and model wife Karlie Kloss. So the first family might be represented after all. And who knows, POTUS could swing by. Does Marine One count as a “private” helicopter?
Others on the guest list, per TMZ, include Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Bill Gates, singer Jewel, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Corey Gamble, Barbra Streisand, Eva Longoria, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Brian Grazer, Barry Diller, Diane von Furstenberg, models Brooks Nader and Camila Morrone, and Queen Rania of Jordan. Perry won’t attend, though, because she’s on tour.
