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Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned after weeks of mass protest for a fatal accident at a railway station in the north of the country that has been blamed for government corruption.
The demonstrations were driven by the fall of the roof of the Railway Station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city on November 1, killing 15 people. The public reaction to the disaster has become the biggest challenge for the close control of senior President Aleksandar Vučić on the government, which has been in office since 2017.
The roof collapsed after renovations at the station by a consortium led by two Chinese companies that are also building a railway line between Budapest and Belgrade. Vučević, a close ally of the president, was chairman of Novi Sad when work began in construction.
The Flag Railway project has been protected by Vučić and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán as the emblematic of their opening to more Chinese investments in their countries.
Nationwide protests have been led by students seeking government responsibility for the station disaster. They have occupied dozens of universities for the last two months as part of their action. On Friday, tens of thousands of people participated in a general strike in support of the Student Movement.
On Monday the farmers joined the demonstrations, blocking the roads in the capital. With the swelling of the protests, Vučić appeared at a late press conference with his premiere to appeal to dialogue with student leaders, saying “we need to reduce tensions and start talking to each other.”
“Any kind of crisis is a serious problem for our economy. Such a situation in society is not good for anyone,” the president added.
Vučić also said he was ready to replace half of the government.
On Tuesday, Vučević said he and his successor as a sad head of Novi, Milan đurić, would withdraw, adding that they were responding to protesters’ request for government responsibility for the accident.
“The Mayor of Novi Sad and I consider ourselves responsible for what happened in Novi Sad and for that we are willingly paying the political price,” Vučević said.
Prosecutors have indicted 13 people regarding the collapse of the station’s roof, including a former Minister of Transport. But student leaders have also demanded full transparency of the investigation, with the publication of seized documents.
The protests have been increasingly angry after the arrest of several demonstrators and clashes with supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party of Vučić. The president on Monday offered a full amnesty to the students arrested in an attempt to extinguish the protests.
