Crowds of protesters in Slovenia tried to disrupt the EU-Western Balkans summit
Slovenian authorities have introduced restrictions on movement in a number of cities in the country, including the capital Ljubljana and Brdo Castle, where the EU-Western Balkans summit will take place.
The leaders of the protest against coronavirus restrictions, Serbian-born politician Zoran Stevanovic and rapper Zlatan “Zlatko” Cordić, were arrested.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, the night before the protest against the restrictive measures introduced by the Slovenian government after a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in the country attracted much fewer participants than past similar promotions. This was largely due to the recent failure that occurred on social networks - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, through which the protesters coordinated their actions.
In addition, due to the EU-Western Balkans summit, after protest leaders called on all sympathizers to block its venue - Brdo Castle near the town of Kranj, the authorities announced restrictions on movement in major cities of the country, including Ljubljana and the area around Brdo Castle.
At the same time, the Slovenian police quickly arrested two leaders of the coronavirus protest - the leader of the Civic Movement party Zoran Stevanovic and the rapper Zlatan "Zlatko" Cordić, as well as twenty-two other activists. According to lawyers, all detainees are charged with paragraph 2 of Article 302 of the Slovenian Criminal Code “Incitement to resist authorities,” which threatens them with criminal punishment for up to three years in prison.
The arrest of the leaders provoked outrage from protesters who threw stones, bottles, and smoke bombs at the police, who responded by using carbon dioxide, water cannons, batons and blocking the rioters in the center of the capital, Ljubljana. An attempt by the protest participants to break through to the Intercontinental Hotel, where the organizers accommodated some of the summit participants, was unsuccessful. As a result, the protesters stopped resisting and were dispersed.
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