The Mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, stated that the City will not organize either the New Year’s Eve celebration or the Serbian New Year’s celebration this year, for security reasons.
Šapić said that he does not want to risk the safety of a single child, because, according to him, minors, mostly girls, came to the organized celebrations in previous years to the greatest extent.
“What happened last New Year, I no longer want to take risks and endanger any child (…) We had that celebration in the Square last year, where a group of people who were passing by tried to rush in. Now, did they want to hurt them? I don’t believe they wanted to hurt them. But whatever they wanted, we will not take such a risk anymore. Our security, together with a part of the police, held those barriers so that they wouldn’t break through, and then they went down below and headed towards Studentski Trg, because they had some gathering there,” he stated.
The Mayor said that until the conditions are met to organize “that kind of happening” “in a normal way,” he does not want to jeopardize anyone’s safety.
“The largest number of girls were there last time too. For us to think about whether 500, 1,000, 2,000, 15,000 of them – I don’t care at all – will go for whatever motive, try to rush in, interrupt the concert, not interrupt it, and traumatize the children there, I have no intention of thinking about that. So, the New Year’s celebration, in the way you are used to regarding the concert, will not happen this year.”
The Mayor also specified that the company “Belgrade Waterfront” will organize a celebration in that neighborhood, but that the City is not involved in the organization of that event.
No purchase of new decorative lighting this year
Šapić also explained that the City of Belgrade did not purchase new New Year’s decorative lighting this year and that the old one, and a certain amount that the City received as a gift, were installed on the streets.
He added that earlier there were criticisms in the public that the City was decorated in October or November, and now, as he said, the same people say: “You haven’t allocated funds, so when will the city be decorated.”
“We will decorate the city according to our possibilities; we are living in some strange and crazy times, I just hope that life will normalize here sooner or later, and that we will no longer have to be in a situation where we cannot, for example, organize the New Year’s Eve celebration,” the Mayor said.
Despite the fact that there will be no organized New Year’s Eve celebration, Šapić announced “a plethora of events” at Republic Square, around the Temple of Saint Sava, and in Tašmajdan Park.
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Source: N1, Photo: Milos Tesic/ATAImages