Novi Sad Rally Announced for the Seventh Time, Never Held

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on August 13 a major public rally in Novi Sad for early September. He made the announcement while talking with residents of the village of Vitosevac in the Razanj municipality, then spelled out the timing that same day to reporters in Paracin. He gave no exact date.

“Since they said I mustn’t go to Uzice and Novi Sad, well, I’ve now scheduled major public rallies in exactly those places,” Vucic said in Vitosevac. In Paracin he separated the two cities: “Uzice will probably be at the end of the month, Novi Sad at the start of September.”

After that statement, the fact-checking portal Istinomer counted how many times the same thing had already been announced. It came up with seven announcements of a major Novi Sad rally over a year and a half. None of them was ever held.

Seven Announcements, From Sretenje to September

By that count, the sequence runs as follows:

• February 2025, the first announcement, a rally planned for Sretenje (Serbia’s Statehood Day), which ended up being held in Sremska Mitrovica instead
• late April 2025, rallies announced for Kragujevac and Novi Sad
• June 2025, with June 28 or July 5 floated as possible dates
• August 11, 2025, an announcement that he would go to Novi Sad because the city had earned it
• September 2025, a message that a big rally was coming soon
• October 2025, an announcement that a much bigger rally would follow 10 to 20 days after a memorial gathering
• August 2026, early September

On top of that, the ruling party had also announced a march through Novi Sad, a blockade of the courthouse over arrested activists, and rallies for Sretenje and Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day). A rally announced for the anniversary of the canopy collapse never materialized either. In the meantime, Serbian Progressive Party rallies were held in towns around Novi Sad.

What Happened Instead of the Announced Rallies?

Two visits to the city itself did take place, but neither was announced in advance. The first came four days after the canopy collapse, in November 2024. That night, Vucic addressed supporters outside the Serbian Progressive Party offices, which had been vandalized during the first major protest after the Novi Sad tragedy, and announced a crackdown on drug dealers.

The second came in February 2026, at the Homeland Fair at the Novi Sad Fairground. The speech lasted five minutes, Novi Sad newsrooms were neither notified nor invited, and after leaving, the president posted on his Instagram account that he had eaten an “index sandwich” in Novi Sad with Serbian Progressive Party president Milos Vucevic.

The gap between what gets announced and what actually happens, then, is the gap between a rally and a visit. A rally needs a crowd that gathers on its own. A visit needs nothing but a schedule.

Reactions From Novi Sad

Novi Sad city councilor Miran Pogacar, of the Bravo coalition, said the only way the president could enter the city was by sealing off half of it.

“Wall it off with a security perimeter, bring in buses full of so-called supporters from every direction, and do all that to create the appearance that he’s wanted. While he counts his visits and boasts about future ones as some kind of victory, Novi Sad counts scandals, the billions that have disappeared, and promises made in front of cameras.”

Pogacar closed his statement to Nova with a verdict on the president’s status as a guest: “in Novi Sad he’s an intruder, not an invited guest. An intruder always leaves. And this time he’ll leave power too.”

Deputy president of the People’s Movement of Serbia Borislav Novakovic said the tone of the announcement itself was the problem.

“He isn’t announcing a visit to Novi Sad. He’s actually threatening that he’ll come to our city.”

The Novi Sad committee of the Serbian Progressive Party has not disclosed a location or a date for the rally. Without that, the August 13 announcement is, for now, formally indistinguishable from the previous six.

Why Now?

The announcement lands right at the start of the election calendar the president himself has laid out on several occasions. Under that timeline, snap parliamentary elections would come in October or November, alongside his resignation as president of Serbia, followed by presidential elections running from the end of this December to early February of next year.

Novi Sad has been one of the strongholds of the anti-government protests since November 2024. A rally in that city, if it is held on the announced timeline, would be the last major pre-election appearance before parliamentary elections are called.

Public appearances have not slowed down in this same stretch. Srpske vesti previously recorded that the president appeared live on television 49 times in the first 11 days of August. The Novi Sad rally announcement became just one more statement from the field in that run, dropped in between two other topics, with no organizational details attached.

A deadline has been set, and that is the only test left. Early September is ten days away.