Belgrade, 17 August 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Protests against the government of President Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia saw a fourth consecutive day of violence on Saturday night.

The most severe riots occurred in the central town of Valjevo, where opponents of the government set fire to the office of Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and damaged buildings of the city administration and the local public prosecutor's office.

The anger of the demonstrators in the town 100 kilometres south-west of Belgrade was directed against the fact that two days earlier, thugs from the SNS ruling party had destroyed a café owned by a sympathizer of the protest movement.

On the same night, SNS thugs attacked the workshop of a student activist's father and beat its operator to the point of hospitalization. The authorities took no steps to prosecute these acts of violence.

Government opponents demonstrated in numerous cities across Serbia during the night, reports said on Sunday.

Clashes with the police also occurred in the Belgrade suburb of New Belgrade.

Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said shortly before midnight that a gendarme was injured and that 18 demonstrators had been arrested. The Serbian authorities did not provide information on the number of injured protesters.

People in Serbia have been demonstrating almost every day against Vučić for more than nine months. The trigger for the protests was the collapse of a newly renovated station canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, which resulted in the deaths of 16 people.

Independent experts and opposition members blame negligence and corruption under the Vučić government for the tragedy.

The protests had largely been peaceful until Wednesday. From the start, however, rallies were repeatedly attacked by organized supporters of the Vučić government, with few of these assaults ever punished.

Independent media attribute the recent escalation into violent riots to public frustration over authorities' inaction in the face of such attacks.

Photo: EPA