Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced that anyone who causes riots during tomorrow's large protest in Belgrade will be arrested, BTA reported.
In an address to the public tonight, Vucic said that arrests would be made both if protest participants were attacked and if an attack was carried out on an institution or if participation in a fight was established.
The Serbian head of state commented on the development of events after the tragedy in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad last year, calling it "a serious incident that claimed 15 lives and affected all of Serbia".
According to Vucic, over the past 4 months, the government have offered dialogue to the protesters and the holding of a referendum and early elections for the opposition.
According to him, it became clear in December that the goal was to hold a "color revolution" in Serbia.
He pointed out that then illegal actions began, but not physically, but by exerting pressure on the prosecutor's office and the court.
"Informal plenums and meetings (of students) began to dictate how the courts and the prosecutor's office should work. Illegal behavior is when you deprive others of the right to free movement. They thought that all this would go on forever," Vucic said.
The Serbian head of state considered it his biggest mistake to have pardoned students and teachers, against whom the prosecutor's office had indicted for their participation in anti-government protests and civil disobedience actions over the past 4 months.
The removal of judicial responsibility from the protesters was one of the demands in the first days of the wave of social discontent in Serbia over the tragedy in the northern Serbian city.
"You can study or not study, that's your decision, but participating in a coup against the state is punishable by the most severe punishment in our country," Vucic said, referring to a recording distributed last night and today in some Serbian media outlets, in which activists from two non-governmental organizations can be heard planning to storm the building of the national Serbian television RTS during tomorrow's demonstrations in Belgrade.
The protesting students distanced themselves from the views expressed in the video.
Serbian students have been organizing protests for four months in various cities in Serbia, demanding accountability for the deaths of 15 people in Novi Sad after the collapse of the railway station canopy in the city on November 1 last year.
With blockades, marches and actions, the students are demanding the publication of all documentation on the station's renovation in order to establish who caused the tragedy, as well as charges being brought against the attackers of protesters at previous protests, and the trials of the demonstrators arrested so far to be terminated.
The authorities announced that all the protesters' demands had been met, but the students stand by the opinion that their demands have not been fully met.
During his address to the public, the Serbian president also said that he currently has no intention of to introduce an extraordinary session in the country due to the protests and described the procedure by which this could happen.
The "15 for 15" protest in Belgrade, organized by the protesting students, begins tomorrow at 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. Bulgarian time)
For several days, representatives of the government have been announcing possible riots, from which the students distance themselves and calling for a peaceful protest.
This evening, on their Instagram account, called "students of the blockade" they published instructions and guidelines for behavior, clothing, and wearing appropriate items during the protest.
The wave of social discontent after the collapse of the concrete canopy at the Novi Sad train station has become a major challenge for President Aleksandar Vučić, considered the most influential political figure in Serbia at the moment.
At the end of January, Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned after an attack with baseball bats and fists on a group of students in Novi Sad in front of the office of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
Vučević is the chairman of the party, and its founder is Aleksandar Vučević.