Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vucevic has criticized the statements of the European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, calling them "scandalous interference" in the country's internal affairs.

Picula said the protests and blockades have put Serbia in "something like a state of emergency."

Thousands of people have been protesting against Aleksandar Vucic's regime in Serbia since November last year. The cause was the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, which killed 15 people. Protesters blame the tragedy on a corrupt system of government.

"His (Picula's) interference in the internal affairs of our country is scandalous, especially his public call to students to come up with political demands. I believe that our youth are wise and love their homeland and that they will reject those who would trample and tear it apart," the Serbian prime minister said in a written statement to Radio Free Europe.

He accused Picula of hating Serbs and of "saying all sorts of things against our country, accusing our church of separatist attempts and calling it part of some 'black hand'."

"Serbia is a sovereign and democratic state and will never be ruled by one Tonino Picula," Vucevic continued.

The speaker of the Serbian National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, also reacted. She claims that Pizula is almost ordering the students to turn their protests into political ones.

"He is ordering them to do everything they have been saying for weeks that they will not do. Pizula, however, does not accept this," Brnabić wrote on the social network X. | BGNES