Dačić: When the baton comes out, there's no stopping!

(Patria) - Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dačić stated that the situation in front of the prosecutor's and court building in Novi Sad, where opposition representatives organized a blockade again today, is currently calm and that, according to his knowledge, employees of these institutions have been enabled to enter their workplaces.

Dačić told TV K1 that the police's role is to ensure that the work of these institutions is not blocked and that the protest passes without problems.

"Even members of parliament use force, but the police will do everything to ensure everything passes peacefully. No one has the right to hit, push the police, commit criminal offenses of attacking an official. The situation is calm now, there aren't many people, about fifty of them are there," said Dačić.

As he added, the police can intervene, but he warns that when the "baton comes out, there's no stopping".

"Anyone who attacks the police with their hand is no longer a political activist, but a thug," Dačić warned.

Opposition representatives gathered again this morning, for the second day in a row, shortly after 7:30 AM, in front of the Prosecutor's Office building in Novi Sad, which they blocked, and at the very beginning, there was pushing with the police.

Dačić then also warned in an official statement the participants of the protests in Serbia that the police "will not tolerate disturbances of public order and peace and endangering the security of the country and state institutions".

In a written statement, he also warned that attacks on the police at these protests will not be tolerated.

"Anyone who attacks the police will be apprehended and criminal charges will be filed for attacking an official while performing their official duties," stated Dačić, as reported by the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs.