Vučić (archive), Photo: Boris Pejović
The head of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) electoral list, Aleksandar Vučić, stated today that October 5, 2000, when the regime of Slobodan Milošević was overthrown after mass protests, was “the day when the verdict was handed down to Serbia from the West on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija and the issue of Montenegro’s departure.”
“Let me remind you of the words of (former Foreign Minister Goran) Svilanović, who said that all those who entered Budapest to collect money, before taking the money, had to sign that they would accept the independence of Montenegro, which was a prerequisite for the later attempt at Kosovo’s secession,” Vučić said at a pre-election rally in Banoštor near Beočin.
On this day 26 years ago, large demonstrations were held in Belgrade because Milošević refused to recognize the results of the presidential elections, in which he lost on September 24 to the candidate of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) and leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Vojislav Koštunica.
On October 5, 2000, demonstrators arrived from all over Serbia on the plateau in front of the then Federal Assembly in columns of cars, buses and trucks tens of kilometers long, in some locations even breaking through police roadblocks with bulldozers.
Already in the morning hours, the police used tear gas to prevent the demonstrators from entering the Parliament, but to no avail.
The federal parliament building was demolished, as was the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building on Takovska Street.
The police soon stopped resisting and mostly joined the citizens.
In the evening, the new president of the FRY, Vojislav Koštunica, addressed the citizens from the terrace of the Belgrade Parliament, and the next day, October 6, Milošević admitted his electoral defeat and congratulated Koštunica.
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