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Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned on Tuesday following months of protests over a deadly awning collapse in November that killed 15 people.
Vučević’s resignation came just a day after President Aleksandar Vučić said “an urgent and extensive reconstruction of the government” was in the works in response to the demands posed by Serbia’s striking university students.
However, Vučević said he was prompted to resign on Tuesday morning after seeing reports of attacks against protesting students in the northern city and regional capital of Novi Sad.
“(The government) has to show … the highest level of responsibility,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“In order to not raise tensions in the society any further, I made the decision I just announced.”
On Monday, demonstrators launched a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the capital Belgrade, stepping up pressure on the authorities.
Serbian farmers on tractors and thousands of citizens joined the blockade that followed weeks of protests demanding accountability for the deadly accident in Novi Sad that critics have blamed on rampant government corruption.
A campaign of street demonstrations has posed the biggest challenge in years to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) government’s firm grip on power in Serbia.
Later on Monday, Vučić, at a joint press conference with Vučević and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić, urged dialogue with the students, saying that “we need to lower the tensions and start talking to each other.”
“Any kind of a crisis poses a serious problem for our economy,” said Vučić. “Such a situation in society is not good for anyone.”
The mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić, is also set to resign on Tuesday. Vučević, who hails from Novi Sad, was also the city’s mayor from 2012 to 2022.
Source: Euronews