site.btaUPDATED Serbian Prime Minister Vucevic Resigns after Months of Anti-government Protests

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned on Tuesday after months of anti-government protests triggered by the November 1, 2024, collapse of the canopy of the Novi Sad railway station that killed 15 people. Vucevic announced his resignation in an official statement in the government building in Belgrade.

In the small hours on Tuesday, two university students were assaulted by unidentified people on a street in Novi Sad.

Vucevic leads the ruling Serbian Progressive Party after the country's President Aleksandar Vucic refused to bid in 2020 for re-election as party leader.

Vucevic said: "The policy that I follow, the policy of the party that I lead, should show the highest degree of responsibility in our society. After what happened last night in Novi Sad, I decided to resign as Prime Minister."

He said he discussed his resignation with President Vucic during the night.

Later on Tuesday, Novi Sad Mayor Milan Duric announced he was leaving his post.

The resignations of Vucevic and Duric, as well as the publication of the full documentation for the reconstruction of Novi Sad's railway station, were the first demands of the opposition and students in the northern Serbian city on November 1, 2024. After Tuesday's resignations, however, the students insist that their demands have been only partially met and that the suspension of classes and exams at the faculties continues indefinitely.

According to Serbia's Constitution, after the resignation of the Prime Minister, Parliament must confirm it at the first subsequent sitting, and only then is the government's term considered over. If the Assembly confirms the resignation, the President is obliged to start the procedure for electing a new government, which is to be voted on by the legislature. If Parliament does not elect a new government within 30 days of the date of the Prime Minister's resignation, the President of Serbia is obliged to dissolve it and schedule early parliamentary elections.

“The collapse of the Serbian government is the result of growing pressure from the local public, led by students, on President Aleksandar Vucic, and not from foreign influences,” the European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia, MEP Tonino Picula, told the Croatian News Agency, HINA. "The fall of the Serbian government is due to the growing pressure on the regime of Aleksandar Vucic by a spontaneously mobilized local public led by students, and not by the “invisible hand” of foreign powers as presented by the outgoing Prime Minister. On the contrary, some of the most influential politicians from EU member states, including the President of the European Commission, openly supported the Serbian President", Picula said.