Serbian cheeseists again protest European proposal

Speakers before the protesters were introduced as students from various Belgrade University faculties, and said it was a “democratic projector”.

Protesters wore nationalist and right-wing symbols.

At the faculty of philosophy platform, organisers addressed the crowd, which cheered “

Protest organisers demanded that, at the Ohrid meeting on March 18th, the European proposal be publicly rejected, the decision be made to give up negotiations and not implement all agreements reached within the dialogue mediated by the European Union, and start negotiations under UN mediation.

Protesters marched through the streets of downtown Belgrade, towards Serbia's Constitutional Court building.

During the march, protesters were heard cheering “Serbs and Russians, brothers forever” and “Serbia for Serbs”.

The preliminary protest, held on March 7th, was announced via the Russian network, Telegram. The protest was called by an unregistered organisation of the far-right People's Patrol, which has organised several protests to counter Serbian government policies against Kosovo.

right-wing organisations and movements in Serbia reject the European proposal for normalisation of reports between Kosovo and Serbia.

The European proposal, also known as the Franco-German proposal, has support from the United States as well.

After six months of negotiations with Kosovo and Serbia, the EU last month published the proposal envisioning to lead the parties towards a legally binding agreement on normalising the reports.

On February 27th, during the meeting in Brussels, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, agreed that there is no need for further negotiations on this document and expressed readiness to work on the plan to implement this proposal.

The 11 provisions document, which has been made public by the European Union, does not specifically mention mutual recognition, which the Government of Kosovo has said should be the focus of an eventual agreement on normalisation of reports.

However, Article 2 of the proposal mentions that parties must respect each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The proposal also includes the parties' commitment to honour all agreements reached so far in the dialogue on normalising relations, as well as their commitment not to prevent each other from obstructing integration processes.

Kosovo and Serbia hold dialogue under EU mediation since 2011. But both states have different goals as regards a final agreement. Kosovo insists on mutual recognition, meanwhile, Serbia seeks compromise solutions. /rel/