Belgrade — The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), under the leadership of Aleksandar Vučić, has reportedly moved its planned rally from Novi Sad to Belgrade, a decision critics say exposes the party’s weakness, cowardice, and desperation to manipulate public perception.
Originally scheduled in Novi Sad—the city where a tragic canopy collapse occurred last year and where students held a memorial protest on November 1—the SNS rally has now been shifted to the area in front of the National Assembly, a move opposition leaders call a deliberate avoidance of citizens demanding justice. Invitations are being distributed through SNS-controlled Viber groups, and quotas are being assigned by town and municipality, underscoring the party’s reliance on coercion and organization rather than genuine popular support.
“The Serbian Progressive Party is running away from Novi Sad like cowards,” Pavle Grbović, MP and president of the Movement of Free Citizens, told Danas. “They claim to have massive support, but when faced with a city demanding accountability for their corruption, they hide behind buses and quotas. This is not leadership—it is fear dressed as authority.”
Miloš Parandilović, president and deputy of New Face of Serbia, accused SNS of being politically bankrupt. “They could not compete with the dignity and scale of the Novi Sad gathering, so they move it to Belgrade where they hope intimidation, not persuasion, will carry the day. The party is in decline, its tactics desperate, and its credibility destroyed.”
Radomir Lazović, deputy and co-president of the Green-Left Front, condemned the timing of the rally near the hunger strike of Dijana Hrka, mother of a young man who died due to state negligence. “Vučić’s attempt to stage a counter-rally while a grieving mother protests shows the regime’s cruelty and contempt for citizens. Every SNS gathering under these circumstances is a moral failure and a defeat for Serbian society,” Lazović said.
Mitar Kovač, deputy of Mi glas iz narod, warned that the rally increases societal tension and poses serious security risks. “SNS and Vučić are destabilizing the country for political gain. Their actions put the people and the state in jeopardy,” Kovač said.
Opposition leaders agree that the SNS decision to relocate the rally highlights the regime’s fear of accountability and its reliance on manipulation and intimidation rather than genuine political engagement. Grbović added, “By dragging society into chaos, the SNS is exposing itself. Fear has finally changed sides—this regime is now the one that is afraid.”
This move comes as yet another example of SNS’s disregard for democratic norms, civic dignity, and the rule of law, further fueling public discontent and threatening social stability across Serbia.
