EuroPride 2022 in Belgrade: A storm over the rainbow flag

On September 11th, thousands of people brandishing religious symbols and Russian flags answered a call from the Orthodox Church and took to the streets of Belgrade to protest against EuroPride 2022 being held in the Serbian capital.

EuroPride 2022 was launched the next day: a week of conferences and cultural events, due to end with a pride march through the streets of Belgrade. Citing security reasons, the government's 11th-hour decision to ban the march was met with fury by the participants.

EuroPride is the annual European meeting of the LGBTIQA+ community, and this was its first time in the Balkans and South-East Europe. At the first EuroPride conference, the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, who is openly lesbian, tried to quell the anger.

"I’m doing my best, I increase the visibility. I have given myself no other right than all of you have. And that is not a lot of rights, I admit.”

This message did not go down well. EuroPride organizers, slammed the ban, as a breach to freedom of assembly. 

« _If anybody else can march, and the police is always providing sufficient protection,_and we are the only social group that cannot march, then it’s discrimination", stormed EuroPride 2022 coordinator Goran Miletić.

“_Who is threatening us? And why aren’t they banned? Why are we banned? It’s a peaceful protest! It’s a further degradation of rule of law, a further degradation of our human rights, a further degradation of our constitutional rights. _It’s exactly why we need to be on the street on the 17th on Saturday. We must stop this!" said Marko Mihailović, director of the event.

All EuroPride venues were under heavy police protection. In defiance of the ban, volunteers mobilized for the event prepared banners for the