Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced the cancellation of the EuroPride event that was to be hosted by Belgrade amid threats from protesters and right-wing opponents.
The cancellation of the event comes as thousands of religious protesters marched through the Serbian capital on Sunday. Belgrade was scheduled to host the EuroPride march on Sept. 17, an event staged in a different European city every year.
Cancellation of EuroPride Event
However, President Vucic on Saturday said that the event would either be canceled or postponed, citing reasons such as threats from right-wing activists. The protest on Sunday against the EuroPride event was held during a procession to mark a religious holiday and was led by clergy from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Some of the church's bishops say that the Pride event threatens traditional family values and should be banned. One of the banners held up by protesters on Sunday read, "Save our children and family."
Other people who joined the Sunday march chanted slogans in support of far-right or nationalist causes. Some of the attendees waved Russian flags, a show of support for Moscow, Serbia's traditional ally, as the Belgrade government tried to balance its ambition to join the European Union with its longstanding ties with Russia and China, as per Reuters.
On Saturday, Vucic said that the cancellation of the EuroPride event was for safety reasons, also citing issues such as an ongoing dispute with Kosovo and the energy crisis. The president said that they plan to continue the event again sometime in the future.
A United Nations representative in Serbia criticized Belgrade's ban on EuroPride, saying it would go against Serbia's international human rights commitments. The remarks were made by Francoise Jacob, the UN resident coordinator in Serbia.
According to Reuters, previous Serbian governments have banned Pride parades in the past, drawing criticism from human rights groups and others. Furthermore, some Pride marches in the early 2000s also met with fierce opposition and were marred by violence.
Serbia's LGBTQ Community
However, recent Pride marches in the country have passed off relatively peacefully, which is a change cited by EuroPride organizers as one reason why Belgrade was chosen as the 2022 host after Copenhagen was last chosen in 2021.
The situation comes as Serbia is a candidate to join the EU but must first meet demands to improve the rule of law and its human and minority rights record, and must root out organized crime and corruption and mend ties with Kosovo.
Vucic's announcement to cancel the EuroPride event was made in the same news conference where he proposed extending the term of the current prime minister, Ana Brnabic, who is a lesbian.
Brnabic became the Serbian prime minister in 2017 but has been criticized by LGBTQ groups for not having done enough to support the community in Serbia. In a statement, European Pride Organizers Association (EPOA) President Kristine Garina called on Brnabic to stick to her pledge of supporting the EuroPride event.
Garina said that President Vucic cannot cancel someone else's event, noting that the right to hold Pride has been ruled by the European Court of Human Rights to be a fundamental human right, DW News reported.
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