Pride has a new route? Petition submitted

Pride has a new route? Petition submitted

The president and prime minister are asked to "make it possible to hold EuroPride 2022 as planned".

They also announced the new route of Saturday's march - from the Constitutional Court to Tašmajdan, Belgrade media report.

"We insist that Europride be held in the format we predicted, there was not a single incident during these four days." Today is Friday and tonight, starting at 6 p.m., as well as tomorrow at the same time, we will have two concerts on Tašmajdan. This means that we have already made a lot of compromises by moving the concerts from Kalemegdan to Tašmajdan, and this is known to the public," says Goran Miletić.

He adds that, after the police ban, they received "two slaps from the judicial institutions".

"First from the Administrative Court and even worse from the Prosecutor's Office, which did not announce that it would only deal with violent people, but that it would punish everyone, which is an unacceptable message. We have again submitted a report to the Ministry of Interior pertaining to the march, for an outdoor gathering, that will be protest walk, a little different from what we wanted before. We will pass in front of the Constitutional Court. We will try to submit a petition to the Constitutional Court again today, the symbolism of the movement in front of the Constitutional Court is such that it will once again decide that the ban is unconstitutional. We will go along the Boulevard of King Aleksandar, Beogradska, Ilija Garašanin, to the entrance to Tašmajdan, where concerts will be held until 1 a.m.," he says. He points out that what the prosecution is announcing is disappointing.

"We have been put in a situation where we have no choice, despite the police ban, we will gather. This is a completely different Pride from the ordinary ones we had. We previously sent invitations to representatives of the authorities, then letters to MPs, ministers, we did that in 2011, 2012 , 2014... At one point, there was that sentence, which spontaneously arose, 'you don't invite to Pride, you come to Pride'. Everyone knows that Pride is symbolic, don't ask us to invite you," he says.

When asked how it was decided to change the route and shorten the march, Miletić said that various options that exist were discussed with the state, and that "no agreement could be reached."

"But this is the maximum we can do from our side. Let's wait for what the state and the police will say, certainly there are contacts, but this is not the agreement we were hoping for," Miletić pointed out.

The president of the European Association of Pride Organizers, Kristine Garina, said that everyone's human rights must be protected, especially when they are threatened, and added that it must not depend on the circumstances.

"They must always be protected and we expect that the march will take place tomorrow as the Prime Minister promised earlier," said Garina.