“Ćacilend”: a pro-government supporters' camp in Pionirski Park

Category: Violence against citizens

Period: 6 Mar 2025 – 25 Oct 2026

Outcome: Under investigation (as of 15 Oct 2026)

On 6 March 2025, a group presenting itself as "students who want to study" pitched tents in Pionirski Park, between the Presidency and the National Assembly. The "Ćacilend" camp was guarded by the police, and the park, which is protected as a natural monument, was fenced off for a year and a half. ANEM recorded 35 attacks on journalists and citizens in and around the camp, and the police often did not respond. Citizens tore the camp down on 25 October 2026, and the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime is looking into a former SNS activist's account that he was paid in cash to stay there.

Tents in Pionirski Park

On the evening of 6 March 2025, nine days before a major student protest in Belgrade, a group calling itself “students who want to study” pitched tents in Pionirski Park, between the Presidency building and the National Assembly of Serbia. In April the camp, publicly dubbed “Ćacilend”, spread onto Nikola Pašić Square and closed it to traffic. The park, which is protected as a natural monument, was fenced off and closed to the public, and the camp was guarded by the police.

The Interior Ministry says the gathering was properly registered in March and April 2025, but it did not answer questions about who registered it or how long it would last.

Who paid for the camp and its security

It has not been officially established who paid people to stay in the camp. A long-time SNS activist told BIRN that he received cash for staying in the camp from Nenad Barac, director of the public utility company Novosadska Toplana. Barac told Danas that the activist had told "a pack of lies" and that the prosecutor's office should examine his responsibility, if there is any. In October 2026, the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime confirmed that it had opened a pre-investigation procedure and asked the police to gather evidence.

Retired police colonel Slavica Radovanović claims that some police officers received up to 200,000 dinars a month on top of their basic pay for guarding the camp, through raises, overtime and per diems; the Interior Ministry has not yet commented.

Complaints and prosecutors

On 28 October 2026, the Kareja Institute called on the Supreme Public Prosecutor to check what the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade had done about its March 2025 complaint over people being paid to stay in the park.

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad suspects one of six employees in Mali Zvornik, arrested on 2 November 2026 over registering voters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, of using the municipality's official vehicles in April and May 2025 to travel to Belgrade and stay in the camp.

Attacks on journalists and citizens

By September 2026, ANEM had recorded 35 attacks on journalists and citizens in and around the camp. The police often failed to respond, and in November 2025 they did not allow the duty prosecutor to carry out an on-site investigation in the camp after a report that a phone had been snatched.

According to an analysis by CINS, by February 2026 proceedings had been opened in ten cases, and no one had been punished. Following a complaint over the attack on the editor of KoSSev, the prosecution did not open proceedings and never called in the journalist, while it sent the case of the attack on the N1 crew to the higher prosecution to examine police failings. Two men who attacked journalists have been indicted, and their trials began in autumn 2026.

Attack on the KTV crew

On 5 November 2025, the day of a rally by government supporters at the camp, SNS official Vladimir Mandić went for Nemanja Šarović and a KTV crew, according to N1 and KRIK. According to a decision by the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, he and the people with him tried to kick the microphone, threw bottles at the crew, spat towards the camera and threw fireworks, but in March 2026 the prosecutor's office dismissed the complaint filed by ANEM because “a sufficient intensity of violence was not shown”.

According to KRIK, Mandić was filmed in the camp in May 2025 kicking a student steward from behind. The attack on the KTV crew is also listed among the attacks on journalists.

Shooting and fire at the camp

In October 2025, a man who was not living in the camp wounded one of its residents and set a tent on fire. Vučić called it a terrorist attack, and the prosecution treated it as attempted murder.

The camp torn down

In December 2025, Vučić thanked the camp's residents for having "guarded Serbia", after which the part in front of the National Assembly was removed, while the part in the park remained.

On the evening of 25 October 2026, after Vučić conceded electoral defeat, citizens tore down the camp; the people from the camp had already left. The next day, city services, helped by citizens, began clearing the park, which was reopened to everyone after a year and a half.

Participants

Aleksandar Vučić: According to Dragan Dobrašinović's initiative, the camp was set up with his support, and he called setting up Ćacilend a "decisive decision" (responsible)
Ivica Dačić: He stated several times that the camp in Pionirski Park was a registered gathering (commented on the case)
Aleksandar Šapić: He said the loss from the closed garage under the park was irrecoverable and that he could not order the fences to be removed (commented on the case)
Nenad Barac: According to an SNS activist's account to BIRN, he paid him in cash for staying in the camp and for the people he brought (responsible)
Nenad Stefanović: Announced that the suspect in the shooting at the camp is charged with attempted murder and causing general danger (investigation and courts)
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia: Claimed the gathering had been registered; according to the media, police guarded the camp together with masked civilians (commented on the case)
Belgrade City Police Department: The chiefs of the Stari Grad police station refused to secure a crime scene investigation at the camp for the prosecutor; police officers did not respond to an attack on a TV crew until the reporter called them over (responsible)
Serbian Progressive Party: According to the Upright Serbia initiative, it backed the camp financially and logistically; its supporters fenced off the protected Pionirski Park (responsible)
Students Who Want to Study (Students 2.0): Its members pitched tents in Pionirski Park on 6 March 2025; according to Dobrašinović's initiative, it is an “illegal tent camp” (responsible)
Novi Sad District Heating: According to an SNS activist's account to BIRN, he was paid in cash by the company's director for staying in the camp (commented on the case)
City of Belgrade / City Administration: The garage under the park, the largest public one in Belgrade, has been closed since the camp was set up; by one estimate, Parking Servis has lost at least 60 million dinars (harmed)
First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade: Dismissed the complaint over the blow to an Insajder journalist, reasoning that the words “better run” were not a threat (responsible)
Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, Special Department for Combating Corruption: Prosecuting V. A. over the shooting in the camp; according to Kareja, there is no data that it acted on the institute's complaint about people being paid to stay in the park (investigation and courts)
KRIK: Published the “Party Guardians” database, in which an Insajder journalist recognised the attacker later charged with coercion (oversight and the public)
BIRN: Published an SNS activist's account of being paid in cash to stay in the camp and of armed men in the camp (oversight and the public)
Insajder: Insajder journalists attacked (harmed)
Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime: Opened a pre-investigation procedure after an SNS activist's account of being paid to stay in the camp, and ordered the police to gather evidence (investigation and courts)
Zagorka Dolovac: Kareja called on her to review how the prosecution handled the complaint about people being paid in the park, and Uspravna Srbija called on her to seek a ban on SNS (investigation and courts)
Kareja Institute for Corruption Research: Filed a criminal complaint over people being paid to stay in the park and called on the Supreme Prosecutor to review how the prosecution handled it (oversight and the public)
Relja Ognjenović: According to the ASNS union at the PIO Fund, he took part in coordinating “thugs” to clash with demonstrators; no authority has established this (responsible)
Jovan Rajić: On X, posting footage of masked people in the park, he asked whether the director of the PIO Fund was among them (oversight and the public)
Association of Trade Unions of Retired Military Personnel of Serbia: It demanded the dismissal of the PIO Fund director because, it says, the media reported he was among the masked people in the park (oversight and the public)
Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions (ASNS): It claims the PIO Fund director took part in coordinating “thugs”, citing photographs from Pionirski Park (oversight and the public)
Dragan Dobrašinović: He petitioned the Supreme Public Prosecutor to seek a ban on the SNS before the Constitutional Court over Ćacilend (oversight and the public)
Mali Zvornik Municipality: The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad suspects that in 2025 one of the municipality's employees went to the camp in official municipal vehicles and that another signed off on the travel orders (responsible)
Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad: On its orders, an employee from Mali Zvornik suspected of using municipal vehicles to travel to the camp was arrested (investigation and courts)
Mile Samardžija: His company's excavators allegedly surrounded the camp on 15 March 2025, when the SNS organised supporters to form a buffer zone against citizens (responsible)
CINS (Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia): He analysed attacks on journalists near the camp and reported that of ten cases before the prosecution, not one had resulted in a penalty (oversight and the public)
Vladimir Mandić: He went for Nemanja Šarović and a KTV crew on the day of a pro-government rally at the camp; he allegedly kicked a student steward at the camp earlier (responsible)
Slavica Radovanović: Claims that some police officers received pay increases of up to 200,000 dinars a month for guarding the camp (oversight and the public)