Novi Sad SNS Rally Postponed, Vucic and Micin Explain
Vucic postponed the SNS rally set for September 4 in Novi Sad via video message, citing security concerns. No new date has been set, says Mayor Zarko Micin ahead of the October 25 election.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic postponed on Wednesday, September 2, the address and rally of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) that had been scheduled for Friday, September 4, in Novi Sad. He announced the decision around 3 p.m. in a video message on Instagram, citing the security situation and the possibility that police could be placed in a position of having to separate two groups of citizens. No new date for the rally was announced in that address.
I wanted and planned to address the people of Novi Sad on September 4, a Friday. I am informing you that we will postpone that address and that rally, because for me, people’s lives matter most.
In the same address, Vucic also explained what task the police would have faced had the rally gone ahead as planned.
The police would not have been protecting us from them, the police would have been protecting them from embittered citizens who can no longer stand the terror on the streets. But for me, both sides are citizens.
Seventh announcement, first without a date
The Novi Sad rally, according to records kept by the fact-checking outlet Istinomer, has been announced seven times over the past year and a half. This time the postponement came just two days before the scheduled date, after details about the location and timing had already circulated and opposing sides had begun organizing for the day. The Novi Sad Assemblies (Zborovi Novog Sada) called on citizens to gather at Liberty Square (Trg slobode) on September 4, while the Bravo movement urged people to hang bloody handprints from their windows that day.
Vucic also linked the postponement to the most recent SNS rally, held in Uzice on August 29, at which incidents occurred: police pushed citizens back from the gathering site, and footage also captured SNS security personnel striking some citizens. Uzice also saw several attacks on journalists: an RTS cameraman was hit by a rock, a crane operator working for TV Pink was attacked, police confiscated the phone of Marko Miletic from the outlet Masina while he was filming citizens being pushed back, and an SNS lawmaker labeled a TV Nova correspondent a “conductor of violence.” Vucic also addressed those attacks in his statement, mentioning the incidents in Uzice, Sid and Veternik.
Behind every announcement of a rally in Novi Sad also lies the collapse of the canopy at the rebuilt railway station, which killed sixteen people on November 1, 2024. The president’s political opponents have repeatedly pointed out that he has not visited the city since, and this, the eighth such announcement, reopened that question once again before it was called off.
Micin: an act of responsibility, not a retreat
Novi Sad Mayor and SNS Presidency member Zarko Micin spoke about the postponement on Wednesday, September 3, in an appearance on Television Prva. Micin presented the decision as the result of an agreement within the party, not as a unilateral move by the president.
He still decided to postpone the rally, and we supported that, even though it was not easy for us.
The mayor rejected the interpretation that the postponement was a sign of retreat.
I spoke with many citizens, there was a strong desire to see President Vucic.
Asked when the rally might be held, Micin did not offer a specific date, instead tying the announcement to the outcome of the election cycle itself.
We expect that rally to happen either before the election or perhaps after a big election victory.
Opposition reactions
Opposition representatives also reacted to the postponement. Borislav Novakovic of the People’s Movement of Serbia (Narodni pokret Srbije), Zdravko Ponos of the Serbia Center party (Srbija centar) and Radomir Lazovic of the Green-Left Front (Zeleno-levi front) all spoke out, in the context of the announcement that Serbia’s snap parliamentary elections will be held on October 25.
Canceling the rally two days before it was due to take place, with no new date offered, leaves open the question of when the president will actually come to Novi Sad. Micin’s phrasing, before the election or after an election victory, suggests SNS is pushing that move to after October 25, but no official date has been set for now.
