BELGRADE, Serbia — Chanting patriotic songs, thousands of supporters of Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic gathered in downtown Belgrade on Friday, a day ahead of what authorities expect to be a huge rally in his support.
Belgrade was on edge, with authorities preparing for large crowds and potential counterdemonstrations in different parts of Serbia.
On Friday evening, protesting university students behind monthslong anti-corruption demonstrations started gathering for their rally on Saturday in the predominantly Bosniak Muslim southwestern town of Novi Pazar.
University students have been a key force in the nationwide movement triggered by a rail station canopy collapse that killed 16 people in the north of the country on Nov. 1 and which many blamed on rampant government graft.
Hundreds of students arrived to a cheerful welcome in Novi Pazar after walking or cycling for days, bridging an ethnic divide stemming from the wars in the 1990s that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation.
Vucic's rally in Belgrade is expected to be a significant moment in Serbia's ongoing political crisis, apparently designed to counter student-led gatherings that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people, and help restore the ruling populists' control.
Vucic and his supporters unveiled a Serbian red blue and white flag which the state-run media said is the largest in the history of the Balkan state.
In the central part of the capital in front of the parliament building dozens of tents were erected to house Vucic's supporters arriving from different parts of the country, as well as Serbs from neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia.
