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🇷🇸 Serbia /Elections & Politics

Filipović: This Is Not Pride, but a Scream and a Circus for Western Ambassadors

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Stevan Filipović said Serbia’s Pride event was not a conventional celebration but a protest calling for change.
  • He argued that the state had no meaningful interlocutor for LGBT demands and that police protection served as a performance for Western ambassadors.
  • Filipović said minority rights could not improve without addressing what he described as Serbia’s broader systemic crisis.

Stevan Filipović says this year’s Pride event is not really Pride. For the university professor, director and activist, it is a “scream” aimed at making something heard and changed.

Speaking on N1’s Novi dan, Filipović said the event had taken on the character of a protest because of the moment in which it was being held. He argued that placing demands before the state had little practical value because, in his view, there was no genuine interlocutor on the other side.

There is no room here, not only for LGBT people, but for around 70 percent of Serbia’s citizens who are not part of the mafia sect in power.

· Stevan FilipovićHe argued that Serbia’s political system leaves no meaningful space for most citizens, including LGBT people.

“There is no room here, not only for LGBT people, but for around 70 percent of Serbia’s citizens who are not part of the mafia sect in power,” Filipović said. He maintained that the problems facing minority communities could not be solved without confronting what he called a systemic problem: the absence of a functioning state, or a state “seized by the mafia.”

The same police could beat citizens tomorrow, while protecting them today.

· Stevan FilipovićHe criticized the heavy police presence at Pride as a political performance rather than genuine protection.

Filipović also criticized the heavy police presence that has accompanied every Pride event since the first Belgrade Pride, held 25 years ago under the slogan “There Is Room for All of Us.” That event ended with the city being damaged and violence against LGBT participants. He said the current security operation was a mask used by the regime to court the West.

“The same police could beat citizens tomorrow, while protecting them today,” he said, arguing that the number of officers deployed did not show whether the protection reflected a real risk or was simply a performance. Filipović said none of Pride’s demands had been met and that he did not expect this to change. Still, he said demands should be clearly formulated and recorded in preparation for a time when genuine dialogue becomes possible. Until then, he said, minorities and majorities alike remain in the same situation.

There is no way anything can be fulfilled because we do not have a real interlocutor on the other side.

· Stevan FilipovićHe explained why he does not expect Pride demands to be implemented.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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