Serbia’s opposition lawmakers on Tuesday threw smoke grenades and tear gas inside the National Assembly to support demonstrating students. One legislator suffered a stroke during the chaos and three MP’s were injured, with politicians seen clashing with security on live footage.
The opposition members defended their actions stating that the government had refused to engage with the student protestors which left them no choice but to escalate their demonstrations.
The demonstrations by students have been ongoing for four months and began after a railway station roof collapsed in Novi Sad, Serbia resulting in the deaths of 14 people, including children. The tragedy resulted in an investigation, which found widespread corruption to be the reason for the collapse and resulted in charges laid against 13 individuals, including former Transport Minister Goran Vesić, his deputy, senior officials with Serbian Railways Infrastructure, construction contractors, and technical supervisors. Protestors have been demonstrating in Serbia to demand justice for the Kragujevac railway disaster for several months.
Speaker of the House Ana Brnabic said that the parliament will continue to work and defend Serbia. Serbian Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic called the incident a disgrace to Serbia and called the incident indicative of the nature of the personalities of the opposition lawmakers and the essence of their political agenda.
This comes after it was found in December of last year that the Serbian government had installed spyware on the phones of government critics. The government was also accused of repressing protests by environmental activists and was later accused of suppressing protests.