Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Belgrade on Saturday for a major opposition rally calling for the government to call early elections or risk new protests in April. Some 70,000 people gathered for the rally in front of the Serbian parliament in central Belgrade, an AFP correspondent said. Police estimates put the figure at 55,000. Parliamentary elections are next scheduled in Serbia for May 2012.
Nikolic's SNS is hoping to cash in on growing discontent as Serbia struggles with rising prices, high inflation and high unemployment. Many protesters came from Serbia's legions of the older unemployed and were bussed in from outside of the capital.
Despite police fears that football hooligans would start riots at the rally, the protest passed peacefully and ended without any incidents reported. Some 4,200 police officers were deployed to monitor the protests and the SNS also provided its own security services.
Serbia was hard hit by the global economic crisis and is still struggling with high inflation and unemployment, fuelling social unrest. According to official figures, the inflation rate reached 10.3 per cent in 2010, one of the highest in Europe.
The average monthly salary was about $535 (Dhs1,963) per month in December. However economists warn that figure is skewed by high salaries in the big cities and that a majority of the country's 7.5 million people live on a monthly income of between €80 and €120.
