SNS Skips Vidovdan Counter-Rally, Vucic Eyes Novi Sad
The president said the ruling party will not hold a June 28 rally to avoid a clash with students, but is weighing a gathering in Novi Sad on Vidovdan or July 5.
- Vucic said the Serbian Progressive Party will not stage a counter-rally on June 28, Vidovdan.
- His stated reason: a wish to avoid a clash with students, who plan their own gathering that day.
- The president said SNS is weighing a gathering in Novi Sad, on June 28 or July 5.
- An academic plenum earlier called the counter-rally plan an attempt to provoke conflict.
Serbian President and Serbian Progressive Party leader Aleksandar Vucic said the ruling party will not organize a counter-rally on June 28, Vidovdan, the day students have announced their own gathering. Vucic cited a desire to avoid a clash with the students, adding that SNS is instead weighing a gathering of its own in Novi Sad, either on the same day or on July 5. That move has, at least for now, taken one of the summer’s most volatile dates off the table.
The announcement that the Progressives will not take to the streets on the same day as the students comes after weeks of back-room speculation about a possible parallel show of force by the authorities. Vucic said SNS has never organized counter-rallies and that this remains the party’s principle. In his telling, the idea of a gathering in Novi Sad is separate from the student protest and should not be read as a response to the street, but as routine party activity.
Why has Vidovdan become a flashpoint?
Vidovdan, June 28, carries heavy symbolism in Serbian politics, which is precisely why any rally set for that date is sensitive. The student movement, which has kept up a rhythm of protests for months, announced a gathering for that day, and the prospect of the ruling party turning out at the same place and time raised security questions.
An academic plenum earlier judged that a Progressive counter-rally, held simultaneously, would amount to an attempt to provoke conflict. Seen that way, Vucic’s statement that SNS will stay off the streets on June 28 reads as de-escalation, a step back from a scenario in which two columns of demonstrators meet in the same space. What remains open is exactly what a Novi Sad gathering would mean, and how the other side would receive it, especially if it falls on Vidovdan itself.
Novi Sad is not a randomly chosen city. It was there, after a railway station canopy collapsed last year, that the wave of protests that spread across the country began, so any political rally in that city carries added charge. A gathering of the authorities in Novi Sad, however it is framed as routine, will be hard to read as a neutral gesture.
What comes before the end of June?
For now there are two options the president mentioned, June 28 and July 5, and the choice of date itself sends a message. If SNS picks Vidovdan, the symbolism stays but the event is geographically separated from the student gathering. If it picks July 5, the gap lowers the risk of a direct collision, but raises the question of why the gathering would be tied to this period at all.
The student movement has held the initiative on the street all year, while the authorities choose between confrontation and avoiding a direct encounter. Vucic’s message that there will be no counter-rally looks like an attempt to keep the authorities out of the role of the side that triggers an incident. Whether that calculation holds until the end of June will depend on how consistently both sides keep their distance, and on where, if anywhere, the Progressives ultimately rally their supporters.
Do you think dropping the Vidovdan counter-rally is genuine de-escalation, or just moving the tension back by a few days?
