Postponing a rally organized by the party/state using all available resources – buses, trains, daily allowances – was unthinkable until recently. The "maker of all decisions" can relativize and say that it is not important, but it is, and it really is, because it sends a message of weakening.
"We invite the whole of working, peasant, honest Serbia to the largest gathering in the history of Serbia on March 28 in Belgrade. All of Serbia to Belgrade! From all corners of our country", exclaimed Aleksandar Vučić on March 10, at the meeting of the main board of the Serbian Progressive Party, and then repeated it on regime television. Somehow it sounded different before March 15, and indeed the largest gathering in the history of Serbia. Before that event, it sounded like it was real. And now? Well - not really.
Already on March 18, a slightly different tone was heard from Vučić, with the announcement of the new, but already worn-out Movement for the People and the State. The one who "counts in his head" the demonstrators expressed the opinion that the number of people gathered is not decisive for the rally, the idea is important. And it is to gather people, choose a name and form the movement on June 28. We will have a small gathering. We will have the first promotion of the movement with the founding team either on March 28 or April 4," Vučić said. Ironically, he added that he "hopes" to gather about 5000 people on that day, enough to fill the Sava Center. More important than the biggest gathering is that the right messages be sent.
Then there was silence. Employees of public companies, municipal administrations and other institutions reported in mid-March that they were starting to make lists and organize buses, and then suddenly fell silent. Now relatives and friends call each other and ask what they should do if he "forces" them to sleep in the park? That is, what will be done for three days because, well, "they have to go", they just don't know the program. And for God's sake, not even the dates.
photo: tanjug video…and Sremska Mitrovica
SREMSK MITROVICA IS ACTUALLY HUGE
Namely, when the student rally in Kragujevac called "Let's meet at Sretenje" was widely scheduled, Aleksandar Vučić called for a gathering in Novi Sad on the same day (February 15) - "so let's count". Then he changed his decision and invited his supporters from both sides of the Drina to Sremska Mitrovica on the same day. He announced that he will travel by train, from "Prokop", and of course Finance Minister Sinisa Mali will travel with him.
The name of the gathering in Sremska Mitrovica, to which Vučić invited the citizens, was "Let's meet at Sretenje". Any resemblance seems to be coincidental, right?
Tanjug announced that a large number of young people welcomed Vučić on the train with songs and chants, and the president himself said that he expects 120000 people. The archive of public gatherings published an analysis on the X network, which states that there were between 21000 and 23000 people at the SNS rally in Sremska Mitrovica, and the media close to the government stuck to Vučić's imagined figure of 120000, which would be one of the largest gatherings in Serbian history.
By the way, the new movement of the President of Serbia has been announced so many times that it has already been forgotten what it is supposed to serve besides the living Serbian Progressive Party. There was a long break in that story, only to resurface unprovoked at a progressive meeting in Jagodina on January 24. A little earlier, the Jagodina SNS pointed out that all the preparations for the reception of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the organization of the largest gathering in the history of Jagodina, are successfully coming to an end. According to the official count of the organizers, more than 50 people gathered, and another 150 buses did not enter the city due to the large crowd. Let all the buses be big and crowded, 50 people in each, that's another 7500 people. And anyone who has been to Jagodina knows that it was not like that.
EVERYTHING WENT DOWNHILL WHEN THEY GOT WET
When we remember all those noisily announced gatherings, it seems that everything went downhill from the gathering called "Serbia of Hope", held on May 26, 2023. That was the first time it was obvious that not all buses, per diems, promises or blackmail could force citizens to wet themselves in front of the Assembly and listen to a series of meaningless speeches.
If anyone has forgotten, in the midst of daily "Serbia against violence" walks after two mass crimes, the media close to the government wrote on the front pages that "The largest gathering in the country's history" is ready. Organized, he says, not as a counter rally, but "for important decisions that have nothing to do with hatred", where "there will be no room for abuse of tragedies".
Vučić was supposed to present the plan for the future of the country to the gathered, and he gave them the admiration of Dodik and Milan Knežević, and his resignation from the position of party president. No one batted an eye at anything. Along with all the buses, Serbs from Kosovo and Republika Srpska, only 45-50 thousand people came, who fled from the rain even before the end of Vučić's speech.
Past experience shows that the number of people at the meeting should not be underestimated. It must be known that even on October 5, there were not half a million people, as the legend used to say. But, no matter how many there were, they knew why they came to Belgrade. The Archive of Public Gatherings published before March 15, 2025, a list of the ten largest outdoor public gatherings in Serbia in 2024.
In the first place was the protest at Slavia in Belgrade, where 22 participants gathered on December 2024, 100000. The second place belongs to the protest against Rio Tinto in Terazije, with about 50000 participants, the third is the protest for the demolition of the canopy in Novi Sad with 22000 participants. There were less than 10 people at the other gatherings. And if we go back further, in 1989, according to Reuters, there were 300000 people at Gazimestan, and Slobodan Milošević claimed to have gathered two million supporters. And for the record, in 1991 there were less than 2000 people at the famous Terazija fountain.
