Thousands protest lithium mining in Serbia. Officials call it a coup plot
- A tentative deal with the EU would bring Serbia closer to the bloc and reduce Europe’s lithium battery and electric car imports from China
Tens of thousands gathered Saturday for a rally against lithium mining in Serbia despite officials’ warnings of their alleged plot to topple populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government.
Vucic said earlier he had been tipped by the Russian intelligence services that a “mass unrest and a coup” were being prepared Saturday in Serbia by unspecified Western powers that wish to oust him from power.
The big crowd chanted “There Will Be No Mining” and “Treason, Treason”.
Government officials and the state-controlled media have launched a major campaign against the rally, comparing it to the Maidan uprising in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that led to the toppling of the country’s then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich in 2013. Organisers of the Belgrade protest have said the protest would be peaceful.
“Our rally today is ecological and has no political ambitions but the government has accused us of seeking to stage a coup,” popular actor Svetlana Bojkovic said. “We came here today to raise our voice against something that is beyond politics.”
The rally in the downtown of the capital comes after weeks of protests in dozens of cities throughout Serbia against a government plan to allow lithium mining in a lush farming valley in the west of the country.
