At least three legislators were injured on Tuesday, one of them seriously, after chaotic scenes in the Serbian Parliament, during which smoke bombs and flares were thrown, further feeding political tensions in the Balkan country.
The legislators were planned to vote on a law that would increase funding for university education, but opposition parties said that the governing majority also planned to approve dozens of other decisions. They said it was illegal and that the legislators should first confirm the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and his government.
The chaos exploded about an hour after the parliamentary session, with the opposition legislators who were blowing the whistles and maintained a flag that reads « Serbia has increased so that the regime would fall! » Hundreds of opposition supporters met outside the Parliament building during the session.
RTS Serbia via AP
The video images of the assembly room showed clashes between legislators and flares and smoke bombs. The Serbian media said that eggs and bottles of water also launched.
Officials said that three people were injured in the disturbance, including the legislator Jasmina Obradovic who was taken to the hospital. Parliament spokeswoman Ana Brnabic, who accused the opposition of being a « terrorist gang ».
The Minister of Defense, Bratislav Gasic, described those behind the incident as « a Serbia’s riot. »
« The vandalism of the opposition deputies has exposed the nature of his personalities and the essence of his political agenda, » said Gasic.
Serbian’s populist president Aleksandar Vucic visited Obradovic at the hospital.
« Jasmina will win, Serbia will win, » Vucic said in a post on Instagram, showing him with the legislator’s hand in an emergency room.
Andrej Isakovic/AFP through Getty Images
The incident reflects A deep political crisis in Serbia Where months anti -corruption protests have ruined a populist government.
Vucevic resigned in January when the government faced protests the collapse in November of a concrete train station Canopy north of Serbia killed 15 people, which cried out of rampant corruption. Parliament must confirm the resignation of the Prime Minister to take effect.
An increase in education financing has been one of the demands of students protesting Serbia, which have been a key engine of almost daily street protests that began after November 1, which collapsed in Novi Sad.
Opposition parties have insisted that the Government has no authority to pass new laws. The left -wing legislator, Radomir Lazovic, said that the opposition was ready to support the approval of the Education Bill requested by the student, but not the other decisions on the assembly’s agenda.
Lazovic said « we can only discuss the fall of government. » He said that the only way to get out of the current crisis would be a transitional government that would create conditions for a fair free election, a demand that the righteous populists have repeatedly rejected.
VUCIC and his progressive Serbian party on the right of the right have imposed a firm adherence to power in recent decades despite formally seeking members of the European Union.
Many Serbia believe that the fatal canopy resulted in the neglected work and the ignoring security regulations due to government corruption.
RTS Serbia via AP
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