Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Belgrade Aug. 10 following weeks of near-daily protests in more than fifty cities and towns across Serbia to demand a ban on lithium and boron mining in the country. Protesters blockaded the city’s two main railway stations, leading to several arrests. Leaders of the activist groups Ne Damo Jadar (Jadar is Not For Sale) and the Association of Serbian Environmental Organizations (SEOS) said they were briefly detained before the rally by police, who warned them that they could face criminal charges if there was any move to block roads or rail lines. President Aleksandar Vučić accused the anti-mining movement of attempting to topple the government in a “color revolution.”
The protests mobilized after Vučić’s government signed an agreement with the European Commission last month calling for multinational mineral giant Rio Tinto to move ahead with the Jadar Valley lithium project in the west of the country. The pact comes under the rubric of the European Green Deal, with the lithium to be used in batteries for electric vehicles. But local farmers are opposing it on environmental grounds, fearing contamination of their lands and waters, and have won broad popular support. (Balkan Green Energy News, Balkan Insight, Reuters, Al Jazeera)
See our last reports on the global struggle for lithium, and anti-mining resistance in the Balkans.
Photo: Balkan Green Energy News
