Belgraders gathered on Saturday for the 16th time to protest against what they said was an autocratic rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), N1 reported.

Like every Saturday, the demonstrators assembled outside the Philosophy Faculty under the main slogan #1in5 million to listen to speeches and then started the protest walk through Belgrade’s central streets.

This Saturday, the demonstrators plan to stop outside the Government building and to organise the main news of free Serbia in front of the state RTS television.

Branislav Lecic, a famous actor and one of the leaders in what had became known as Serbia’s “velvet revolution” in 1991, said outside the Government building that next Saturday, the walk would go to the private Pink TV, considered loyal to the regime.

On March 16, a part of the opposition and protesters stormed the RTS building, demanding live appearance during the prime time news.

The special police intervened, and occasional clashes were reported. Later on, 18 of mostly young people, including one teenager, were arrested and urgently sentenced to 30 days in jail.

They were all released after Vucic said they should be set free. Some of them are said to be tried again.

Since December 8, the protests start with a couple of addresses by prominent artists, journalists and people of different professions.

The opposition, made up of parties from left to right, including politicians who were a part of the previous regime, has kept a low profile, but as of recently some of them started addressing the crowds in Belgrade and in almost 100 other places where demonstrations have been held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The protesters demand free media for six to nine months and then free and fair vote after election rules are changed.

 On March 12, the opposition and protesters gave a 30-day deadline to Vucic and the government to step down, and since they didn’t expect that to happen, they called for a big rally in Belgrade on Saturday, April 13 inviting all the protesters from across Serbia to join them in the capital.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic warned protesters that the state was ready to prevent and to answer to any violence that might occur on April 13.

In what seems to be a response to that event, Vucic and SNS announced big gatherings for April 12 in the northern city of Novi Sad and on April 19 in Belgrade.

That should be the end of his campaign Future of Serbia, during which he toured different districts and presented people the achievement under his rule and failures of the previous regime.

The protests started last November after an opposition leader Borko Stefanovic was heavily beaten up by thugs with metal bars ahead of the Alliance for Serbia (SzS) opposition grouping rally in the central town of Krusevac.

SzS blamed the violence on the “dirtiest witch-hunt which Vucic’s regime wages daily against political opponents.”The next day, the first protest was held in Belgrade under the “Stop bloody shirts” motto.

It changed into #1in5million after Vucic said he would not cede to their demands even if five million people gathered.

So far, he mainly ignored the protests, saying the opposition was behind them and offered them fresh election to measure their strength, though the opposition leaders did not ask for any vote and the majority of the parties said they would boycott it if held under the current rules.

 Vucic’s SNS is pushing for an early vote, but he asked them to be patient, and that election would be held either this summer or next spring.