Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic today announced the cancellation of September’s EuroPride, but its organizers immediately disputed the decision, citing a “difficult crisis” in Kosovo, saying the large gathering of the LGBTI community would take place as it has been predicted.
“According to the majority of members of the government and the prime minister (…) the pride march or whatever the name of this thing is, will be postponed or cancelled, as you like,” Voutsitis said at a press conference.
“It’s just that, at a given moment, we can’t manage everything. Another time, in happier times,” added the president, explaining that Serbia is “under pressure”, facing “all kinds of problems”.
He cited mainly a new rise in tensions in Kosovo, a former Serbian province with a majority population of Albanians that declared independence in 2008 that was never recognized by Belgrade, as well as energy-related problems. and the food sector.
EuroPride is scheduled to take place in Belgrade from September 12 to 18, with a week of festivities and events and a pride march on the eve of its closing.
This major pan-European event has been held in a different European city every year since 1992, with the first one taking place in London.
However, the organizers of EuroPride immediately declared that the event will take place as normal, underlining that several court decisions have ruled that other cancellations in the past were unconstitutional.
“The state cannot cancel EuroPride — it can only try to ban it, which would be a flagrant violation of the Constitution,” event coordinator Marko Mihajlovic tweeted.
“The march will take place as planned on September 17,” he said.
Although Serbia is one of the few countries where the prime minister, Ana Brnabic, is openly gay, members of the LGBTI community still live in fear.
The first two pride marches in Belgrade, in 2001 and 2010, were marred by violent incidents between anti-gay protesters and law enforcement. The march has been held regularly since 2014, but with a significant presence of class forces.
Holding hands remains a taboo for same-sex couples in the country where nearly 60% of LGBTI people say they have suffered physical or psychological abuse, according to a poll by human rights groups IDEAS and GLIC .
Associations of the LGBTI community hoped last year that a draft law recognizing the cohabitation contract would be adopted by parliament, but Aleksandar Vucic had said he would not sign such a law because the Serbian Constitution “defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman.” ladies man”.
Demanding in 2012 that the authorities ban the pride march, the then-head of the country’s most influential Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irenaeus, called it a “march of shame”.
Source: Capital
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