“It is my appeal for everyone to calm down the passions and return to dialogue,” Vucevic said at a news conference announcing his resignation, which was followed hours later by Novi Sad's mayor stepping down.
The protests, including one Tuesday evening in Novi Sad that drew thousands of people, have spread to streets and university campuses throughout the country of roughly 6.6 million people, as citizens from all walks of life, including actors, farmers, lawyers and judges, have thrown their support behind the student movement that has rattled the country's most powerful figure, President Aleksandar Vucic.
The prime minister's resignation could lead to an early parliamentary election or to the ruling majority, led by the right-wing Serbian Progressive Party founded by Vucic and led by Vucevic, trying to form a new government.
Vucic said at a news conference hours after Vucevic resigned that the decision will be made within the next 10 days. He rejected an opposition request for a transitional government and warned that Serbia's stability has been shaken.
“Order will be restored in Serbia, peace and stability will be preserved,” said Vucic. He issued a veiled threat, saying that “rage is mounting every day on the other side — the side of the majority.”
Opposition parties said they'd insist on a transitional government that would create conditions for a free and fair election. The governing populists have faced accusations of irregularities during past elections.
Vucevic became the prime minister in April 2024 after his party won an election marred by tensions and captured more than five times as many seats as any other party.
“They have been in a free fall since the Novi Sad tragedy,” journalist Slobodan Georgiev said of the ruling party 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, who was first elected president in 2017 and counts Hungary's populist conservative prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as an ally, has managed to stifle past anti-government protests. But the protests since the train station collapse have extended beyond idealistic university students and faculties.
The students' call for justice has resonated in a country where corruption is widespread and few feel that state institutions are serving the public's interests.
Branimir Jovancicevic, a 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.
“If the president thinks that by replacing one, essentially, unimportant figure ... will solve the problem ... he is deeply mistaken," Jovancicevic said. ”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 students in a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
In an attempt to defuse tensions on Monday, Vucic, Vucevic and the parliament's speaker, Ana Brnabic called for talks with the students. But student protest leaders have so far rebuffed such invitations, noting that Vucic's role as president is officially a largely ceremonial one. Instead, they have called for governmental institutions, including the police and judiciary, to do their jobs and enforce the rule of law spelled out by the constitution.
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 Serbian Progressive Party. He 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.”
Echoing statements Vucic has made, the outgoing prime minister also said the protests “undoubtedly” have been organized from abroad “with an aim to directly jeopardize Serbia as a state," though he offered no evidence.
“I can never justify or understand many of these protests, blockades of lives, of roads and the freedom of movement of other citizens,” Vucevic said.
Students in Novi Sad said they were horrified by the latest assault, which they said was carried out by thugs with baseball bats who attacked two groups of students and chased them in their car. Prosecutors said four people had been detained in the attack.
“We are horrified over the state of our society where such a situation is possible. We have had enough of blood," the students said in an Instagram post.
During the big rally in Novi Sad later Tuesday, where many demonstrators waved their red-painted hands or placards featuring red handprints — a symbol of the movement meant to tell authorities they have blood on their hands — a student told the crowd that “this is not just our struggle, it’s the struggle of all (people) who want justice. The attacks on students must not be repeated.”
Several incidents have marred the street demonstrations in recent weeks, including drivers twice ramming into crowds and injuring two women.
Students and others have been holding daily 15-minute traffic blockades throughout Serbia at 11:52 a.m., which was the time the overhang fell on Nov. 1. The blockades honor the 15 people who were killed, including two children.
Doubts over prosecutions
Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges tied to the train station collapse against 13 people, including a government minister and several state officials. But former Construction Minister Goran Vesic, who had resigned shortly after the tragedy, 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.
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