Massive anti-graft rally engulfs Serbia's capital

BELGRADE

A sea of people converged in Serbia's capital Belgrade on March 15 night in what was the largest in a series of anti-corruption demonstrations that have upended the Balkan country in recent months.

At one point the crowd stretched for nearly two kilometers, with people filling the streets in and around the parliament and the capital's main pedestrian square.

"We have gathered in the streets primarily to express our complete dissatisfaction after years of dictatorship, lawlessness, and corruption," said one demonstrator, Ognjen Djordjevic, a 28-year-old resident from Belgrade.

The movement formed after 15 people were killed when a railway station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in November, igniting long-simmering anger over alleged corruption and lax oversight in construction projects.

After March 15's rally, the Interior Ministry said that at least 107,000 people had turned out.

The Public Assembly Archive, a group that monitors crowd size, gave a much higher figure. It estimated that between 275,000 to 325,000 people took to the streets.

For weeks, student-led protesters have crisscrossed the country, holding rallies in Serbia's major cities.

They have also taken their anti-corruption crusade to the rural areas and small towns that have long been the backbone of Vucic's support.

Their return to Belgrade on March 15 ramped up already compounding pressure on Vucic's government, with several high-ranking officials, including the prime minister, having resigned in recent months.

The protest, like the others before it, cut across a wide-spectrum of society, bringing together those aligned with the far left and right.

Amid scores of Serbian flags, some waved banners calling for environmental protection, while others demanded the return of the former breakaway province of Kosovo.