President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said on Friday that any rallies in the northern Serbian village of Hrtkovci scheduled for May 6 have been banned.

“The state has banned any gatherings, full stop,” he told reporters in a news conference.

Vucic appealed to all participants in the ongoing saga on whether any rally would take place there to understand that the decision to impose a ban was made out of fears for public safety and order.

The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) led by Vojislav Seselj had announced a rally at the village this month, which was the site of Seselj’s inflammatory speech in the early 1990s calling for the expulsion of ethnic Croats from the area. Seselj was later convicted for the speech at the Hague war crimes tribunal.

Vucic also commented on his upcoming official visits to Ankara and Moscow and his meetings with Presidents of Turkey and Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin, scheduled to take place May 7-9. Vucic said that the meetings’ agenda would include bilateral relations (with Russia) and economy, politics and regional cooperation (with Turkey).

Vucic will meet Erdogan on May 7, Putin the next day, and on May 9 he will be present at the Victory Day military parade in Moscow.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.