Prayer Processions as Political Protests in Postsecular Serbia (2014–2024)

Abstract Ever since the fall of Milošević’s ideologically hybrid regime in 2000, and the final disintegration of Yugoslavia, postsocialist, post-Yugoslav, post-Non-Aligned Serbia has been in the process of negotiating and shaping its modern national identity. This has often included fierce symbolic struggles, especially in terms of ownership over public space and, most notably, surrounding Gay Pride Parades: an early response was a prayer procession organized to ‘purge’ the streets after the first successful manifestation of this sort. This article strives to offer a brief overview of the developments in the use of prayer processions over the past decade. These processions have been politically charged religious rituals performed in the public space with specific demands posed to the state, but rarely have they been directly organized by the official church. Special attention will be accorded to the (increasingly explicit) geopolitical implications of this phenomenon.