25/09/2022
Radio Free Europe, the independent station that since 1949 has transmitted free journalistic commentary from a base in Germany to countries where there is little free media, reports from Belgrade, the Capital of Serbia, where Neo-Nazis, in alliance with the highly reactionary Serb Orthodox Church, failed to stop around one thousand supporters of the LGBTQIA communities from marching in the capital. However, around six thousand police were deployed to prevent the Nazis from causing damage to property and the state had earlier refused permission for any formal Pride march. Serbia’s current Prime Minister Ana Brnabic is lesbian, but has been distant from the organised gay community, according to her critics. Radio Free Europe reported that eighty seven Nazis and religious fanatics had been arrested as they threw debris at Police. The Interior Ministry of Serbia said that they were working hard with Police to identify and take action against the Nazis and their allies who had caused the disturbances, in which thirteen police officers were injured. One commentator at a British based gay web forum remarked “Increasingly it is clear that even in Eastern Europe, the threat to peace and democracy comes not from the hard left or LGBT+ groups, but from the far right and religious fascists. They need to be suppressed ruthlessly or else they will drag the Balkans back to civil war and strife”.
