Yesterday in several cities of Serbia, the series of protest rallies against Rio Tinto continued, the Archive of Public Meetings there announced.
The Archive of Public Gatherings has published, based on its data, an estimate of participation by city, where the number in brackets indicates the equivalent of participation in Belgrade, in proportion to the number of inhabitants:
Arandjelovac: 1,500 (91,000)
Barajevo: 260 (39,000)
Kraljevo: 2,700 (61,000)
Law: 400 (179.000)
Shabac: 7,000-7,500 (190,000-203,000)
With more than 7,000 participants, the protest rally in Shabac has become the biggest political rally in Serbia this year, even bigger than the All-Serbian Assembly from June, the Archive of Public Gatherings points out.
According to the announcement, lithium is a stronger motive to take to the streets than election thefts, violence and the president’s topics about Kosovo.
After the record rally in Bogatić, held the day before, this was another demonstration of the plebiscite rejection of the idea of lithium mining by the population of Macvë, the organization says.
They especially point out that, compared to the number of people in the countries where they are held, of the 14 protests organized this summer against Rio Tinto, even 10 of them are more massive than last year’s largest protests against violence in Belgrade. Also, five of them are bigger, in terms of relative size, than the October 5 protests.
“Given that this is all happening in the heat of summer, a season traditionally considered ‘dead’ for holding protests, it is clear that lithium mining is the strongest motivation to take to the streets since the restoration of the multi-party system in Serbia, stronger than electoral theft, violence and Kosovo”, assesses the Archive of Public Gatherings.
