Belgrade Pride Held in the Shadow of Ratko Mladić's Funeral

In the capital of Serbia, a gay pride parade was held to mark the 25th anniversary of the struggle for LGBT rights in the country. The event was the culmination of Pride Week, which ran from August 31 to September 6, 2026. The march coincided with the funeral of convicted war criminal General Ratko Mladić, but the pride organizers decided not to change the schedule.

The march started on September 5, 2026, from Manjež Park. The route passed through central Belgrade past the buildings of the Government, the Presidency, and the National Assembly. Near the Church of the Ascension, participants were shown a photograph of Ratko Mladić. According to the organizers, pride is a protest against discrimination, violence, and the lack of legal protection for queer people in Serbia. This year’s slogan, “There is room for all of us,” refers to the first pride in 2001, which was accompanied by mass violence against participants. As reported by the Serbian service of the BBC, volunteers and reinforced police units monitored safety.

Journalist Danica Vučenić became the godmother of the Belgrade Pride this year. Among the main demands of the activists are the adoption of laws on same-sex unions and legal gender recognition, a quick response by the authorities to hate crimes, access to pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP), as well as an official apology to citizens persecuted before 1994.

According to the human rights organization Da se zna, 110 hate incidents against LGBT people were recorded in Serbia in 2025, including at least 20 physical attacks. The trend continued in 2026: since the beginning of the year, more than 70 incidents have been registered, of which over 20 were cases of physical violence, including a tear gas attack on the Belgrade queer club Mornar.