Serbia's populist president demands order after months of anti-corruption protests shaking his rule

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday demanded that authorities restore ''order and peace'' in the Balkan country following months of anti-corruption protests that have shaken his firm grip on power.

Vucic was addressing a large crowd of his supporters during a rally in downtown Belgrade with many of them bused into the Serbian capital from all over the country, as well as neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia.

The Serbian president has been struggling to quell the nationwide movement led by university students demanding justice for the victims of a train station canopy collapse that killed 16 people in November and which many blamed on alleged widespread graft.

The increasingly authoritarian Serbian government has stepped up a crackdown against critics and independent media, with police questioning students and activists and threatening legal action to curb university strikes. Vucic's speech before thousands of his supporters at a rally in Belgrade suggested state pressure on the protesters and media could grow further.

The gathering in Belgrade was designed to counter the massive anti-corruption protests that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people in an unprecedented challenge to Vucic. In a highly divisive speech, the Serbian president accused the student-led protesters of ''inflicting huge evil on Serbia in the past five months,'' and reiterated claims of a foreign-led ploy to oust him from power.

''The attack came from abroad,'' Vucic said without naming the alleged foreign organizers and offering no evidence for his claims. ''We will not allow those from outside and inside Serbia to destroy our state.''

Vucic received backing from his right-wing ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who addressed the rally in a video message. Another speaker was Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik whose arrest is sought by Bosnia's authorities over his separatist policies.

Authorities sealed off a central area in the capital Belgrade outside the parliament building, setting up concert stages, tents and food stands for the thousands of nationalist supporters from the region.

An adjacent park hosting Vucic's loyalists in front of the presidential palace was encircled with several dozen tractors, apparently in protection of his offices.

As tensions brewed, protesting university students — a key force behind almost daily protests — have urged Belgrade residents to stay away from Vucic's rally and "use the weekend to rest.'' The Serbian capital echoed with the noise of whistles, vuvuzelas — a type of horn — and pot-banging during Vucic's speech in protest.

Vucic told the crowd in Belgrade that ''everyone must be granted the right to study and to education.'' Those ''fueling violence'' must be punished, Vucic added apparently referring to the students, though their protests have been peaceful.

Protesting students have been camping in their faculty buildings all over the country for the past five months, supported by their professors and deans.

The student-led gatherings have drawn hundreds of thousands of people for some of the biggest rallies ever in Serbia. On Saturday, students were holding a festive rally in the predominantly Muslim town of Novi Pazar, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Belgrade.

Police intervened against students who staged a sit-in to free an intersection for buses ferrying Vucic's supporters to Belgrade. Protesters later spilled red paint outside the police station in Novi Pazar while chanting, ''You have blood on your hands!'' They said one protester was injured.

Separately, police broke up a blockade of a city transportation garage in Novi Sad. A protest march demanding the release from the weekslong detention of a group of activists was held in the northern city.

Protesters said public buses were being used for Vucic's rally while rail and bus services were suspended during anti-government gatherings.

Vucic has trampled on the independence of Serbia's universities in a campaign that has entered "a phase of open dictatorship,'' the ProGlas group of prominent individuals, experts, actors and others said.

Vucic is a former extreme nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the European Union but has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms while maintaining close relations with Russia and China.

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Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.