Serbia's parliament erupts in chaos after opposition lawmakers hurl smoke, fire bombs
March 4 (UPI) -- Serbia's parliament erupted into chaos Tuesday as opposition lawmakers set off smoke grenades and other measures to block the last-minute passage of a series of laws initiated by the departing government.
"We believe that an exiting government cannot propose laws," Radomir Lazovic of the Green-Left Front party said in remarks to the body prior to the release of flares and gas bombs, which led to thick clouds of red smoke filling the national assembly in Belgrade during its first spring session.
Ana Brnabic, the speaker, refused to interrupt the session as fights broke out between members with two reported injured.
Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned in January after nationwide public outrage and protests calling for accountability following the tragic collapse of a renovated train and bus station awning in November which killed 15 people in Novi Sad.
"(The government) has to show...the highest level of responsibility," he said in a Jan. 28 public address. "In order to not raise tensions in the society any further, I made the decision I just announced."
Hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered nearly every day to block main roads or other acts, which protesters again did after congregating in front of the parliamentary building in the capital city following Tuesday's episode.
"The uprising that lasts for months in the whole country has reached the parliament today," Aleksandra Tomanic, executive director of European Fund for the Balkans, posted on X.
Meanwhile, the outgoing prime minister's resignation has yet to be approved by the Serbian parliament.
On Tuesday, the outgoing Vucevic government proposed a string of laws to adopt which would grant concessions to student and youth protesters before the legislature acted on Vucevic's resignation effectively ending his administration.
A new candidate must be approved by a vote of parliament but could trigger new elections a little more than a year after the last one if the ruling Serbian Progressive Party fails to get behind a new leader.
Brnabic, of the same political party as Vucevic and the nation's president, called the opposition "thugs and terrorist bandits who want to block the work of the institutions," and claimed on Tuesday that MP Jasmina Obradović suffered a stroke stemming from the chaotic scene.
"The woman is fighting for her life after you threw a flashbang at her," Brnabic stated.
Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic won a second term in office in April 2022 when his Serbian Progressive's received nearly 43% of the vote, based on 90% of ballots counted.
It all arrived "after months of protests in the whole country and hundreds of thousands on the streets demanding justice for 15 dead and functioning institutions," the Balkan Fund's's Tomanic added.
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