On 7 July 2020, a series of protests and riots began over the government announcement of the reimplementation of the curfew and the government's allegedly poor handling of the COVID-19 situation, as well as being a partial continuation of the "One of Five Million" movement. The initial demand of the protesters had been to cancel the planned reintroduction of curfew in Serbia during July, which was successfully achieved in less than 48 hours of the protest. The protesters also demanded a more technical response to the COVID-19 crisis and more factual and constructive information about the ongoing medical situation. Among other causes, the protests were driven by the crisis of democratic institutions under Aleksandar Vučić's rule and the growing concern that the President is concentrating all powers in his hands at the expense of the parliament. Background COVID-19 pandemic mismanagement On 7 July 2020, the day when protests began, Serbia saw its deadliest day yet during the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia with 13 deaths. President Vučić said that situation in the capital city is alarming, and has announced that he is banning gatherings of more than 5 people and imposing a curfew from Friday 18:00 to Monday 5:00 local time. The Serbian Government has been accused of hiding true numbers of people infected and deaths from COVID-19. BIRN's research showed that in the period from 19 March to 1 June 2020, a total of 632 people died in Serbia who had tested positive for COVID-19 which is more than twice as many as the officially announced number of 244 deaths in that period. BIRN has learned that by analysing data obtained from the state's COVID-19 information system. The President has been accused of lifting the lockdown too early in order to hold parliamentary elections in which his party won by a landslide. During this period, large parties, sport events and gatherings happened and greatly increased the number of infected individuals. A big sport event was also held, a football game between Red Star and Partizan with tens of thousands people attending. A leading specialist in the COVID-19 Crisis Team, closely related to the ruling party in money schemes, has said that the sport events were not an epidemiological risk because "tickets were sold online" even though thousands attended without practising social distancing measures or wearing masks. After those events, Danas newspaper called for Serbian Government COVID-19 Crisis Team "to wake