Smoke grenades tossed in Serbian parliament
BELGRADE — Serbian opposition lawmakers threw smoke grenades and used pepper spray inside parliament on Tuesday to protest against the government and to support demonstrating students, with one legislator suffering a stroke during the chaos.
Four months of student-led demonstrations, sparked by the deaths of 15 people when a railway station roof collapsed, have drawn in teachers, farmers and others to become the biggest threat yet to President Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long rule, with many denouncing rampant corruption and incompetence in government.
At the legislative session, after the ruling coalition approved the agenda, some opposition politicians ran from their seats towards the parliamentary speaker and scuffled with security guards.
Vucic later said authorities would hold all those deputies involved in the fracas to account, calling it “hooliganism.”
