Serbia’s prime minister resigns as anti-corruption protests grow

BELGRADE: Serbia’s populist Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned Tuesday in an attempt to calm political tensions and pressure roiled by weeks of massive anti-corruption protests over the deadly collapse of a concrete canopy.

The canopy collapse in November, which killed 15 people in the northern city of Novi Sad, has become a flashpoint reflecting wider discontent with the increasingly autocratic rule of Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic. He has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms in Serbia despite formally seeking European Union membership for the troubled Balkan nation.

“It is my appeal for everyone to calm down the passions and return to dialogue,” Vucevic told a news conference announcing his resignation.

Novi Sad Mayor Milan Djuric also stepped down on Tuesday.

Vucevic’s resignation could lead to an early parliamentary election. The resignation must be confirmed by Serbia’s parliament, which has 30 days to choose a new government or call a snap election.

Pro-government media said President Vucic will attend a Cabinet session on Tuesday evening to decide whether a new prime minister-designate will be appointed or an early election called.

Opposition parties have said they would insist on a transitional government that would create conditions for a free and fair election. Vucic’s populists have faced accusations of irregularities during past elections.

Vucevic became the prime minister in April 2024, after the Serbian Progressive Party won most votes in an election marred by tensions.

“They (ruling party) have been in a free fall since the Novi Sad tragedy,” journalist Slobodan Georgiev said on N1 television, adding that Vucic was seeking a “buffer” with the prime minister’s resignation.

Protests are the biggest challenge yet to the ruling populists

Vucic in the past had managed to cushion the impact of anti-government street protests, but the current student movement has garnered widespread support from all walks of life, including actors, farmers, lawyers, and judges.

The students’ call for justice has resonated in a country where corruption is widespread and few feel that the state institutions work in the interests of citizens.

Branimir Jovancicevic, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry in Belgrade, expressed hope that Vucevic’s resignation is a first step toward further political changes in Serbia, where power is concentrated in the hands of the president although his constitutional role is largely ceremonial.

“If the president thinks that by replacing one, essentially, unimportant figure ... will solve the problem ... he is deeply mistaken,” said Jovancicevic. ”This must lead to total political changes because autocracy and dictatorship in Serbia, in the heart of Europe, must be stopped.”

On Monday, tens of thousands of people joined striking university students in a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the Serbian capital. Serbia’s students are demanding accountability for the canopy collapse that critics have blamed on rampant government corruption.

Classes at Serbia’s universities and dozens of schools have been blocked for two months with students camping inside their faculty buildings.

In another attempt to defuse tensions, Vucic, Vucevic and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic on Monday evening urged dialogue with the students, who have so far rebuffed such invitations. They say Vucic shouldn’t be the one holding talks with them but that government institutions such as police and the judiciary should do their job.

Another student is assaulted

Vucevic said the immediate cause for his quitting was an attack on a female student in Novi Sad early Tuesday by assailants allegedly from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Vucevic said that “whenever it seems there is hope to return to social dialogue, to talk ... it’s like an invisible hand creates a new incident and tensions mount again.”

But the outgoing prime minister also said that the street protests “undoubtedly” have been organized from abroad “with an aim to directly jeopardize Serbia as a state.” Vucevic offered no evidence for his claims that echoed earlier similar statements by Vucic.

“I can never justify or understand many of these protests, blockades of lives, of roads and the freedom of movement of other citizens,” he said.

Students in Novi Sad said they were horrified by the assault they said was carried out by thugs with baseball bats. They attacked two groups of students and chased them in their car, the students said. Prosecutors later said that four people have been detained.

“We are horrified over the state of our society where such a situation is possible,” the students said in an Instagram post. “We have had enough of blood.”

The students called a big rally in Novi Sad later Tuesday in response to the attack.

Doubts over prosecutions

Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges against 13 people, including a government minister and several state officials for the November canopy collapse. But the former Construction Minister Goran Vesic, who had resigned shortly after the canopy crash, has been released from detention, fueling doubts over the investigation’s independence.

The main railway station in Novi Sad was renovated and inaugurated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure deal with Chinese state companies and a fast railway link with neighboring Hungary.

Several incidents have marred the street demonstrations in the past weeks, including drivers ramming in to the crowds on two occasions, when two young women were injured.

Students and others have been holding daily 15-minute traffic blockades throughout Serbia at 11:52 a.m., the exact same time the concrete canopy crashed down on Nov. 1. The blockades honor the 15 victims, including two children. The blockades were also held on Tuesday.