Representatives of the Patriotic Bloc in the Belgrade City Assembly delivered an official demand to Mayor Aleksandar Šapić and the chairman of the City Assembly Nikola Nikolaević to cancel the Europride event in the Serbian capital.
The demand stresses that 97% of citizens of Belgrade and the whole of Serbia oppose the Europride, which will take place from September 12 to 18.
It should be cancelled for security reasons, against the backdrop of the worsening geopolitical situation, and especially because of the incident in Oslo, where a shooting in a club preceded the failed gay pride parade. According to the deputies, LGBT people should not put themselves and other citizens at risk.
In addition, given that there are more than 4,000 covid-infected people in Serbia, the cancellation of the event is necessary for epidemiological reasons.
"A lot of financial resources will be spent on the needs of this unpleasant event. According to the official websites of the EU and the Council of Europe, the cost of the event could reach 40 million euros. Considering that this parade of shame is taking place in our city and all resources of Belgrade will be used, we ask open and justified questions, how much will Europride cost for Belgrade and Belgraders, who asked us, while we are the absolute majority opposing all this and whether we want to hold such a thing in our city?"
The politicians called on the mayor to provide the public with data on how much it would cost to hold Europride and to report everything that would be paid for out of the pockets of citizens who are not being asked anything.
"Citizens are openly asking if it is possible, in times of economic and security crisis, to give priority to LGBT persons rather than providing free books and food to our schoolchildren, assistance with heating and food to vulnerable families and children in our city or assistance to pensioners whose pension is less than 20 thousand dinars, and which only in Belgrade are over 150 thousand."
The deputies believe that such events also insult the religious rights of believing citizens of Belgrade and the whole of Serbia, Orthodox, Muslims and representatives of other religions.
The document also states: "Open threats from the LGBT community disturb all family citizens, especially parents of elementary school students, and they make a legitimate demand to keep their children out of school before, during and after the Europade.