MPs from the People's Movement of Serbia (NPS) Ivana Rokvić and Ana Jakovljević were attacked today while trying to remove a banner with a Nazi swastika, which reads "Better Ćaci than Nazis", near the Pioneer Park in downtown Belgrade, namely at the intersection of Kneza Miloša Street and Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra, at the entrance to the "Students Who Want to Learn" camp, the so-called Ćaciland.
The NPS statement says that Rokvić and Jakovljević were attacked by a group of about 40 men and that "none of the attackers were of student age."
A video posted on social media shows people resembling football hooligans, Beta reports. Some of them were throwing small objects at the deputies and dousing them with water.
"Instead of condemning the attack on the MPs, government representatives are spreading hate speech extensively through tabloids and social media, continuing to divide society and dig ever deeper trenches of intolerance, targeting the MPs, thereby endangering their safety," the NPS statement reads.
The Nova.rs portal reports that the banner has been removed.
Misdemeanor charge against MP for cutting up banner
The police today brought MP Ivana Rokvić to the official premises and filed a misdemeanor report against her for violations of the Law on Public Order and Peace and the Law on Weapons and Ammunition, the Serbian Ministry of the Interior announced.
They explained that she had damaged the banner that was there with a penknife.
Police officers seized from her, along with a receipt for the seized items, a multi-purpose metal hand tool, which includes a six-centimeter blade, the statement says.
They add that she was in the company of MP Ana Jakovljević.
On the other hand, the president of the Democratic Party, Srđan Milivojević, filed a complaint against unidentified persons who placed the banner "Better uncles than Nazis" on the fence around the tent settlement in Pionirski Park.
Students in blockade: They want to provoke us, we will respond, but not today
The students in the blockade announced that they would respond to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić for calling them "Nazis", but - "not today, because today they are trying to provoke us."
They spoke out after a banner appeared in front of the Serbian Parliament with the message "Better uncles than Nazis", along with a swastika.
"That banner is not just a disgrace - it is a direct consequence of the statement of the President of the Republic, who called the students in the blockade Nazis." They said that they would not tolerate that word and insult and that they would respond to it, but not today, "because today they are trying to provoke us."
In the post on X, they also wrote that those who defend the regime in Serbia, gathered in a "tent camp", are attacking citizens and provoking them, and that they want to cause incidents before the elections in Kosjerić and Zaječar.
They also say that they are angry, but that they will not allow themselves to be guided by "their agenda."
"They don't know that it's not weakness that we are silent today - it's the strength of those who know when to speak," they pointed out.
Who is one of the attackers?
N1 reports that one of the men who attacked MPs Ivana Rokvić and Ana Jakovljević is Milan Pudar.
He became known to the wider public, the media outlet recalls, when it was learned that he was one of those who ran the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) call center at the Novi Sad fair on election day. He also participated in the blockade of the Faculty of Philosophy when they demanded the dismissal of Dinko Gruhonjić, a professor at that faculty.
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