Serbia’s defence minister Aleksandar Vulin (pictured above) and 30 lawmakers from the ruling SNS party went on hunger strike on April 12.

The minister and the MPs aim to bring attention to “the violence being carried out by [opposition politicians] Boško Obradović, Dragan Đilas and Vuk Jeremić.”

The defence minister also went on a hunger strike in 2003 during a demonstration against the arrest and extradition of then-Yugoslav People’s Army major Veselin Šljivancanin, who was later convicted of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal.

On April 11, Belgrade deputy mayor Goran Vesić announced he will also go on hunger strike with pro-government city councillors.

“I don’t see any other way to resist the hooliganism of a part of the opposition, who are obstructing [construction] works in the center of Belgrade, destroying the property of citizens and chasing investors away from our city – other than to start a hunger strike,” Mr Vesić told the Serbian press.

Over the last few months, Serbia has seen massive anti-government demonstrations against president Aleksander Vučić and his ruling SNS party over allegations of corruption, democratic backsliding and the abuse of the free press.