On 24 December, a riot broke out after an unsuccessful attempt by opposition councillors to enter the building of the City Assembly of Belgrade.

In May 2023, a school shooting happened in the Vračar municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, followed by a mass murder in the villages of Dubona, Mladenovac and Malo Orašje, Smederevo.

[3][4] Organisers demanded the resignation of government ministers, halting and cancelling the broadcast of reality programs and shows that promote violence on television with a national frequency, banning print media whose content promotes violence, publishes fake news, and violates the Journalistic Code, and confiscating the national frequency of Pink and Happy television channels.

[6] Opposition parties organising the protests formed the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition for the parliamentary, Vojvodina provincial, and Belgrade City Assembly elections, which were scheduled for 17 December 2023.

[12] The Belgrade City Assembly election did not have a winner due to Branimir Nestorović's We – Voice from the People organisation unexpectedly gaining representation in the body; neither the government and the opposition won a majority.

[13][14] The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) concluded that SNS had a "systematic advantage that created unfair conditions in the elections" (imala sistematsku prednost koja je stvorila nepravedne uslove na izborima) and that Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, heavily dominated the election campaign, despite not being a candidate in it.

[24] Members of the National Assembly of Serbia Jelena Milošević and Danijela Grujić began a hunger strike at the protest on 21 December.

[25] At the same protest, SPN representatives called for the European Union to not accept the results and conduct an international investigation.

[31] The protest began again in front of the RIK building, where Tepić, Aleksić, Srđan Milivojević, and Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta gave their speeches.

[36][37][38][39] Out of opposition representatives, Ćuta was hit with tear gas, while Radomir Lazović and Željko Vagić, the president of the Grocka Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) board, were attacked by the gendarmery.

[53][54] While protesting in Knez Miloša Street, a group of demonstrators played football and volleyball on the road, while some also danced kolo.

[59][60] Struggle organised another protest in front of the MDULS building on 27 December, demanding that the voter list should made public.

[62] Later that day, SPN organised another protest in front of RIK, then marched towards the building of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).

[69] At the protest, Tepić demanded the annulment of the election results, after which she was driven away to a hospital for treatment, ending her hunger strike.

[81] During the 24 December protest, Ivica Dačić, the deputy prime minister and president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), condemned the riots outside the City Assembly of Belgrade.

[82] Šapić said that the election protests "are the beginning of a civil war" (uvod u građanski rat) and compared them to Euromaidan.

[85] Vučić commented on 27 December that he does not fear the opposition, the protests, or the "fabricated and agreed-upon reports of election observers, which claim that there were massive irregularities" (izmišljenih i dogovorenih izveštaja posmatrača izbora, koji tvrde da su postojale ogromne nepravilnosti).

[88] Miloš Jovanović, one of the representatives of the NADA coalition, expressed his support for holding new elections and said that citizens have a right to resist and organise peaceful protests.

[90][91] Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Vladimir Putin, accused foreign powers of staging the protests in Belgrade, while Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs of Russia, accused "the West of setting a fire to the already tense enough political situation in Serbia" (Zapad pokušava da potpali već dovoljno napetu političku situaciju u Srbiji).

[95] Sergey Lavrov, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, also claimed that "the West tried to organise an illegal change of government" (Zapad pokušao da organizuje nelegalno preuzimanje vlasti).

[100] Following the protests, the European Parliament held a session on 17 January, during which the 17 December elections in Serbia were discussed.

Didier Reynders, the European Commissioner for Justice, condemned the violence that took place during the protests and said that he expects the government of Serbia to implement the recommendations for electoral conditions.

The resolution called for an international investigation of the results, for the European Commission to follow the reports of the Court of Auditors and to immediately start an audit of the funds provided to the Government of Serbia.

[111][112] The elections were a loss for the opposition; SNS regained its majority back in the City Assembly and BB only won 14 seats.