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Serbia Gay Pride march returns after four years

322 views · Published 28 September 2014 · 2:01 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Serbia's first Gay Pride march for four years is set to begin in the capital Belgrade.

The event has been cancelled on safety grounds every year since marchers were attacked in 2010.

Several thousand police are expected to be deployed across the capital during the parade.

However Serbia is negotiating to join the European Union, and a BBC correspondent says it is keen to show increasing tolerance in the country.

Keeping Brussels happy is undoubtedly the motivation for allowing the Gay Pride march to go ahead, the BBC's Guy De Launey reports from Belgrade.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he would not attend the event due to prior engagements - but would not go even if he were free.

Our correspondent says that reflects widespread feelings in Serbia.

The patriarch of the influential Orthodox Church has condemned the event.

Two-thirds of respondents to a survey four years ago said they viewed homosexuality as a disease.

But the influence of the far right has declined in recent years, and several government ministers have spoken in favour of the march.

The minister for European integration Jadranka Joksimovic has said she would join the march.

Earlier in September a German LGBT rights speaker was treated in hospital after being beaten in Belgrade.

In response to the attack, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said: "We will not allow this kind of thing to remain unpunished."

The march in 2010 was the only gay pride parade to go ahead in the Serbian capital since 2001.

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