BELGRADE – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has canceled the international EuroPride event that was scheduled to be held in Belgrade from September 12-18, while organizers of the event have vowed that it will proceed as planned, FoNet reported.
At an August 27 press conference in Belgrade, Vučić acknowledged that the rights of sexual minorities are threatened in Serbia but said the government had come under intense pressure from right-wing groups and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church to cancel the event.
“It is not a question of whether those pressures are stronger. It’s just that at some point you can’t achieve everything, and that’s it.”, Aleksandar Vučić said. He allowed for the possibility that the event could be held at a later date.
Marko Mihailovic, an activist with Belgrade Pride wrote on Twitter that Vučić’s decision to cancel the parade was “a clear violation of the constitution, as well as the verdict of the Constitutional Court declaring the bans of the Pride in 2011, 2012, and 2013 unconstitutional.” He vowed that the parade would proceed as scheduled on September 17.