The resignation of Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, three months after the collapse of a canopy in Novi Sad that killed 15 people, and a wave of daily protests and student blockades, is being interpreted by some analysts and the opposition as "another coup by the authorities" in Belgrade and an attempt by President Aleksandar Vučić to regain control.
Vučić said at a press conference last night that he would make a decision in the next ten days on whether to hold elections or form a new government. He said that he would invite party representatives to consultations and added that he was "in favor of both options." He explained that after the resignation of the Prime Minister, according to procedure, this is stated in the Serbian Parliament, and that there is a 30-day deadline for electing a new government.
"If not, then we go to elections," Vučić said, emphasizing that there will be no transitional-technical government, as certain opposition leaders are calling for.
The Serbian President said that Prime Minister Vučević's move "will go down in the annals of responsible and serious actions." He added that Vučević, who is also the president of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, has begun talks with coalition partners on these topics.
Vučević resigned yesterday after a group of men attacked students in the city with baseball bats the previous night. The attack, which seriously injured one girl, came just hours after Vučić called for dialogue and calming tensions in society on Monday.
The students accused members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of the attacks, and police announced yesterday that four suspects had been detained.
Although he confirmed that the attackers from the SNS had injured the girl, Vučević also accused the protesters of drawing “targets on the foreheads” of the Progressive Party officials for months, calling them murderers. Both he and Vučić repeated unsubstantiated claims that the protests were orchestrated from outside. “It was absolutely planned from abroad, it was despicably planned, it was aimed at education (…). “No matter how much we called for the calm of passions, something always happened according to some evil scenario, as if some invisible hand had created a new incident and created tensions in society,” Vučević said.
The Mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić, also submitted his irrevocable resignation yesterday.
The resignation of Vučević and Đurić, as well as the publication of complete documentation on the reconstruction of the Novi Sad Railway Station, were the first demands of the Novi Sad opposition and students after the accident in which 15 people died. Vučić said last night that all the protesters' demands had been met.
According to analysts, Aleksandar Vučić probably counted on the resignation of Vučević, the highest-ranking official in the country, to be enough to quell discontent and allow him to bring the protests under control.
“Alternatively, he could call early elections, seeking to regain control of the narrative and exploit the decentralized and very diverse social movement behind the protests,” said Marta Špala, a senior fellow at the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.
The timing of the snap election would likely work in Vučić’s favor, Špala told the British Guardian. “He would hope to take advantage of the fact that there is no strong, unified political structure that could challenge his rule, given that the opposition had expected the next election to be held in 2027.”
Political analyst Dragomir Andjelkovic said yesterday that Vučević's resignation is "a new setback for the government", and not an acceptance of responsibility for the problems in society. Andjelkovic told Beta news agency that in explaining his resignation, Vučević accused foreign powers of divisions in Serbian society, thereby sending a message that the current government is innocent and not responsible for the political crisis.
"Vučević placed the students in a negative context of foreign influence, and said that the government was almost ideal and that it had some mistakes here and there. Vučević's resignation is a dirty game by the government, so that Aleksandar Vučić can present himself as wanting a national consensus. In the coming period, he will offer false negotiations about the elections and various other false concessions," he assessed.
According to him, fair elections are impossible under the SNS's conditions. "Vučić is trying to buy time by expecting the protests to subside. Vučević's resignation should be seen as a new challenge and student-citizen protests should continue. Vučević's resignation should not be seen as a weakness of the government, because it is just an attempt at a new fraud," Anđelković pointed out.
He said that the opposition should not accept a possible offer to hold elections.
The president and vice-president of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Dragan Đilas and Marinika Tepić, announced yesterday, following Vučević's resignation, that there can be no talk of new elections until all student demands are met. Đilas wrote on the social network X that without all student demands being met, "there can be no talk of elections, let alone elections."
"When that happens, then the formation of a technical-transitional government that will prepare the conditions for elections and only then the elections," said Đilas.0
Tepić also stated at the IX that it is first necessary to fulfill the students' demands, then to improve the electoral conditions through the transitional government, and only then can the elections take place.
Protests and blockades continued across Serbia last night. Students and citizens gathered last night in front of the University of Belgrade Rectorate building, on Student Square, to support their attacked colleagues in Novi Sad. Those gathered carried banners reading "Belgrade with Novi Sad", "Your batons will not conduct", "Your hands are bloody", "Crime and where is the punishment".
Thousands of students gathered in Novi Sad yesterday to protest against the beating of their colleagues. During the protest march, the demonstrators blocked the roads and the busiest intersections in the city. They carried banners reading "Dialogue" with an illustration of a bloody baseball bat as an allusion to the beating of students and the regime's previous call for dialogue, "Enough blood", "Now you're done!" and chanted "Arrest Vučić!" and "Prison, prison", "Resignation and prison!".
“Those who have been inciting tensions for 13 years are now trying to calm them down,” wrote Lazar Stojaković from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences at the University of Belgrade on the X platform.
"You won't succeed, you beat us, ran over us with cars, beat up our colleagues in Novi Sad. See you again on the streets."
Protests were also held in Niš, Kragujevac, Čačak, and Zrenjanin.
The resignation of the Serbian Prime Minister was among the headlines in the world media yesterday, and the AP agency assessed that the resignation will most likely lead to early parliamentary elections. Reuters points out that Vučić is considered a strategic player on the international scene due to Serbia's historical ties with Russia and the West, and adds that Serbia is a candidate for joining the European Union.
The European Commission announced yesterday that it had been informed of the resignation of Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, but that it did not wish to comment on it as it was an internal political matter for the country. Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier did not want to speculate on the future government of Serbia, but said that the EU encourages all political actors to engage in dialogue and to refrain from escalating tensions. He said that he could reiterate that EU institutions are closely monitoring the current internal political situation in Serbia and the “mobilisation of students and other groups”.
He added that freedom of assembly is a fundamental EU right that needs to be protected and allowed to be enjoyed peacefully, with full respect for the rule of law and public order. “We are concerned about the incidents against demonstrators and expect the Serbian authorities to investigate this,” Mercier said.
Some analysts point to the broader impact of the protests, suggesting that they could be a sign of changes in the political dynamics of the Balkans.
“Even judges, high-ranking civil servants, were reportedly leaving the courts to support the protesters,” Edward Joseph, a former US diplomat at Johns Hopkins University, told the Guardian. “The fear factor is gone. Even in the degraded democracies of the Balkans, people still have power and can demand accountability.”
Porfirije disgusted by beating of female student
The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) yesterday distanced itself from the views expressed in a text on its official website the day before, which assessed that students "live in parallel universes", stating that the text reflects only the personal position of the signatory, and in no way reflects the position of SPC Patriarch Porfirije.
Porfirije announced yesterday that he was disgusted to learn that a third student had been seriously injured since the start of the student protests and demanded that responsibility for the case be determined.
"I am appalled to learn that a third student has been seriously injured, this time in the already wounded Novi Sad. I expect that those responsible for these and all other crimes will be punished in accordance with the law," Porfirije said in a statement forwarded by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
He stated that violence has never brought anyone anything good and that it is contrary to all Christian principles and as such unacceptable, especially towards "our students."
"It is the last moment for each of us to do what we can to stop hatred and conflict immediately. The greatest responsibility lies with those who have the most power," said Porfirije.
Picula: There is no invisible hand, Vučić is under pressure from the domestic public
The European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Croatian MEP Tonino Picula, stated yesterday that the fall of the Serbian government is a consequence of the increasing pressure on Vučić by the domestic public, led by students, and not by pressure from abroad.
“The fall of the Serbian government is the result of increasing pressure on the regime of Aleksandar Vučić by a spontaneously mobilized domestic public led by students, and not by the ‘invisible hand’ of foreign powers as the outgoing prime minister represents. On the contrary, some of the most influential politicians from EU member states, as well as the president of the Commission, have openly supported the Serbian president,” Picula told the Croatian news agency Hina. He said it remains to be seen whether “support for the autocracy will remain unchanged even after the evident collapse of the current model of governing Serbia.”
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