Nis City Center Closed Until Thursday for SNS Final Rally
Streets around King Milan Square have been shut since Tuesday morning and dozens of bus routes are being rerouted, while MP Jelena Milosevic claims a high school cut its classes short.
General Milojko Lesjanin Street and Vozd Karadjordje Street in Nis were closed at 8 a.m. on October 20, and traffic in the center will stay suspended until 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 22. The reason is the final rally of the Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia list, scheduled for Wednesday, October 21, at 6 p.m. on King Milan Square. We reported on the announcement earlier, and today the city got the first consequences of the preparations: altered public transport and a dispute over whether one school shortened its classes because of the rally.
Which streets are closed, and until when?
According to a notice from the Nis Public Transport Directorate, the traffic regime looks like this:
- General Milojko Lesjanin Street and Vozd Karadjordje Street are closed from 8 a.m. on October 20 to 8 p.m. on October 22
- traffic is completely suspended on the stretch from the Office to the Court
- Heroj sa Pastrika Street closes on October 21 from noon until midnight
The Directorate said in its notice:
Traffic will be fully suspended on the stretch from the Office to the Court, and public transport routes will be temporarily changed.
Preparations on King Milan Square have been under way since the morning: chairs and a stage are being set up and the area is being cleaned. A banner with a circled number 1, the SNS list number in the elections, still hangs on the square, where it has stood since the student list rally held on October 10. Over the weekend a new banner also went up reading “Serbs are not a genocidal people! We are proud of our heroes,” with no party markings.
What changes in city transport?
The routes of city lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13 and 14 are changing, as are suburban lines 18, 19, 20, 20L, 21, 22, 23, 23L, 23K and 37. Because Heroj sa Pastrika Street is closing, lines 14, 14A, 15, 16, 17 and 17L also change routes. The Directorate is publishing the alternative routes on its Instagram page.
What does Milosevic claim about the First Nis Gymnasium?
Jelena Milosevic, an MP in a caretaker mandate, wrote on X that classes at the First Nis Gymnasium “Stevan Sremac” were shortened because of the SNS rally. The reason she gives comes from her own post, not from a statement by the school:
Allegedly because of a change in the bus route, and the route has been changed for three days because of the rally. In truth they fear that the students will walk past the SNS rally, because they know what kind of savages they have.
In the same post, Milosevic listed what, in her words, the city is putting up with because of the rally. Among other things, she wrote:
Because of one man, the center of Nis is closed for three days. Because of one man, buses change routes and the people of Nis walk around the central streets of their own city. Because of one man, you cannot approach the public garage. Because of one man, shutters are pulled down and the people of Nis are forbidden to step out onto their own terraces.
She also claims that Nis’s public sector is under pressure to attend the rally, and she said: “Because of one man, Nis will be flooded with buses tomorrow.” So far the shortened classes are confirmed only by her post. In the texts we reviewed there is no response from the school, the SNS City Board or the city to these claims, so we present them as the MP’s claims, not as verified facts.
How did the SNS walk on Sunday go?
The Wednesday rally was preceded by an SNS walk on Sunday, October 18. It set off at 5 p.m. from the National Theatre, went down Nemanjic Boulevard and 7 Jul Street and reached City Hall. The organizers estimate that it drew more than 8,500 people; there is no independent estimate of the turnout.
Speaking in front of City Hall were Dragoslav Pavlovic, the mayor and commissioner of the SNS City Board in Nis, and Milan Lazarevic, acting director of the Nis University Clinical Center and president of the Nis board of the Movement for the People and the State. Pavlovic said:
Tonight we gathered to send a message of stability, peace, and above all a united Serbia. Because only united can we lead Serbia forward today.
On that occasion Pavlovic criticized the recent rally of the student list’s supporters and urged citizens to back list number one in the October 25 elections. Lazarevic thanked those gathered for their support over the past two years and invited them to the Wednesday rally with the words: “Let’s welcome him in the greatest numbers, the way he deserves, the way the people of Nis know how, only the south knows how.”
Aleksandar Vucic, the list’s leader, also called on people to attend the same rally. At one of his campaign rallies he said it would be the last rally before these elections, “the best day of the campaign” and “the biggest party.”
