Serbia will cancel the September celebration of EuroPride, a pan-European event celebrating gay pride, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced today, noting in particular a “difficult crisis” in Kosovo.
“According to most members of the government and the prime minister… the pride parade, or whatever it is called, will be postponed or cancelled,” Aleksandar Vucic told a news conference, quoted by AFP.
“You just can’t handle everything at certain times. In another time, in happier times,” the president added, explaining that Serbia was “under pressure,” facing “all kinds of problems.”
In this context, he pointed out, in particular, a new upsurge in tension in Kosovo, a former Serbian province that proclaimed its independence in 2008, never recognized by Belgrade, and also problems related to energy and food.
Vucic announced this change shortly after ordering openly lesbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to form a new government, some five months after elections in early April.
EuroPride was scheduled to take place in Belgrade from September 12 to 18, in a week of festivities and events and with a ‘Pride Market’ scheduled for its penultimate day.
The choice of city for the 2022 edition of Europride was announced in September 2019, with Portugal, Spain, Serbia and Ireland vying for the organization.
Europride is an annual event that has been held since 1992, and its first edition takes place in London.
Despite the Serbian president’s announcement, Europride organizers have already stated that the event will go ahead as planned, noting that various court decisions have already ruled, in the past, that cancellations are unconstitutional.
Source: Observadora
