{"id":417338,"date":"2025-01-28T15:21:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/28\/serbia-proteste-vucevic-dimissioni-ue\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T16:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T15:19:18","slug":"student-protests-in-serbia-lead-to-resignation-of-prime-minister-vucevic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/28\/student-protests-in-serbia-lead-to-resignation-of-prime-minister-vucevic\/","title":{"rendered":"Student protests in Serbia lead to resignation of Prime Minister Vu\u010devi\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – At a press conference called\u00a0in Belgrade this morning, Serbian Prime Minister Milo\u0161 Vu\u010devi\u0107 announced his resignation,<\/strong> attempting to quell the wave of protests shaking the country for nearly three months. However,\u00a0the demands of the population, led by the strong student mobilization, go far beyond that, and Vu\u010devi\u0107’s step back is unlikely to be enough to restore order.<\/p>\n

Serbia has been paralyzed since the collapse of a bus shelter at the Novi Sad train station on Nov. 1, 2024, killing\u00a015 people and seriously injuring two. The incident opened\u00a0a can of worms about rampant corruption in the Balkan country, with thousands of people spilling into the streets shouting ‘Corruption kills.’ The escalating tensions between protesters and Serbian authorities led – on Monday,\u00a0Jan. 24<\/a> – to a general civil disobedience strike and a roadblock<\/strong>, by students and farmers, of two major arteries into central Belgrade.<\/p>\n

Vu\u010devi\u0107, who was at the center of the storm because he was mayor of Novi Sad at the time of the renovation of the train station while defending the work of his government, admitted that Serbia “seems to have come to a standstill” after the tragic incident, which opened “deep divisions” in the country<\/strong>. Vu\u010devi\u0107 reportedly decided to resign after, last night, in Novi Sad itself, some students were attacked by a violent group, causing the serious injury of a woman. According to the state media<\/a>,\u00a0the ambush was a sort of retaliation against the students<\/strong>, guilty of vandalizing\u00a0an office of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) with anti-government graffiti and stickers. The nationalist party that has been in power for twelve years is an expression of Premier Vu\u010devi\u0107 and President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong><\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"serbia\"<\/a>
An aerial view of the anti-government protests in Belgrade (Photo by TADIJA ANASTASIJEVIC \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I expect the perpetrators of the attack to be arrested,” the resigning premier said in condemning the attack by the violent\u00a0wing of SNS sympathizers. However, providing no evidence, he then revived\u00a0accusations of foreign interference in the spread of the protests.<\/strong> Vu\u010devi\u0107 also pointed his finger at the opposition, which he said was guilty of wanting to profit politically from the Novi Sad incident.<\/p>\n

From Brussels, the European Commission is closely watching developments in the Balkan country, which has been a candidate for EU membership for 11 years. “We are concerned about the incidents against protesters, for which\u00a0we expect swift investigations by the Serbian authorities<\/strong>,” EU executive spokesman for Enlargement, Guillaume Mercier<\/strong>, said today, citing the attack on students in Novi Sad. “We recall that under EU law, authorities must protect participants in demonstrations from armed or violent groups,” he added.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic at the World Economic Forum in\u00a0Davos, Switzerland [Photo via Imagoeconomica]<\/p>\n

In response to Belgrade’s vague\u00a0accusations against Western countries – with President Vu\u010di\u0107 <\/strong><\/b> denouncing from the Davos forum\u00a0the interference of “foreign agents<\/strong>, from several Western countries”\u00a0<\/strong>to stir protests – the European Commission responded sharply: “The spread\u00a0of disinformation and hostile political rhetoric<\/strong>, including against the EU and its citizens, has no place in the EU’s integration path.”<\/p>\n

Albeit cautiously, Brussels sides with the protestors, reminding them that “citizen participation plays a key role in the development of a healthy society, including promoting transparency and accountability,\u00a0values we expect all candidate countries<\/strong> to embrace.” In addition to full transparency in public projects — starting with the publication of all of the\u00a0documentation on the renovation of the Novi Sad train station — students and protesters are calling for the withdrawal of false accusations<\/strong><\/b> against those\u00a0arrested<\/strong> during the protests and the filing of criminal charges against those\u00a0responsible for the violence committed on protesters<\/strong>, in several cases people proved\u00a0affiliated with Vu\u010di\u0107’s SNS. The student collectives leading the protests also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vu\u010devi\u0107 and the mayor of Novi Sad.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now that they have obtained the premier’s step back and that Vu\u010di\u0107 ordered the release of some important documents on the Novi Sad station, students and protesters are unlikely to stop. The president has\u00a0thirty days to decide whether to appoint a new executive or call snap elections<\/strong>, which could break the SNS hegemony over the country’s political life. The public squares are waiting for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PM announced his resignation following a new incident of violence against students in Novi Sad. Brussels: “We expect swift investigations by Serbian authorities.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":358197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[30287,27759,30290,26071],"class_list":["post-417338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-alexandr-vucic-en","tag-milos-vucevic-en","tag-protests","tag-inserbia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417338"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417348,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417338\/revisions\/417348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}