Serbia's prime minister resigns as anti-corruption protests sparked by deadly collapse swell
apnews.com
A canopy collapse, which killed 15 people in the city of Novi Sad, has become a flashpoint reflecting wider discontent with the increasingly autocratic rule of populist President Aleksandar Vucic.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s populist Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned Tuesday in an attempt to calm political tensions following weeks of massive anti-corruption protests over the deadly collapse of a concrete canopy. The canopy collapse in November, which killed 15 people in the northern city of Novi Sad, has become a flashpoint reflecting wider discontent with the increasingly autocratic rule of Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic. He has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms in Serbia despite formally seeking European Union membership for the troubled Balkan nation. Novi Sad Mayor Milan Djuric also will step down on Tuesday, Vucevic said. Vucevic’s resignation could lead to an early parliamentary election.

      • Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        11·
        2 days ago

        Serbian students have been occupying most university faculties for months to organise and facilitate the protests. You don’t get your leaders to step down by complaining on the internet.

        • moncharleskey@lemmy.zipEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Did you see how the protests in support of Palestenians have been treated buy our government and universities? I’m not saying you are wrong, I’m saying that protesters were already facing being expelled from universities, fired from jobs, and/or arrested, and now we have an extremely corrupt and authoritarian government that has been elected, one with total disdain for the people’s rights. I doubt they would tolerate months long protests without bringing in the US military. Not the kind of thing to take lightly!

          • Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Serbian protests had the support of most of the general population. The students faced a lot of state violence as well, but this only made their case stronger and caused more people to join. Protests like these for the most part are a numbers game. The more people join in the safer it is. The US population has been pacified and I see the only way to improve conditions is to agitate and depacify.

            So you’re right that the condition in the US are different and that a different approach might be needed, but sitting by and doing nothing will for sure not help. I’m really tired of people on lemmy throwing their hands in the air while less fortunate people are being harmed by your government’s actions. It pains me to see how little people actually care if it turns out they need to actually make sacrifices to change anything.

            • moncharleskey@lemmy.zipEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              Trust me, it’s painful to me as well, and has been for most of my life at this point. People are an incredibly difficult species to herd it seems. Give them just a little bit to subsist with and they just… live with it. And now it looks like the powers that be have decided that we can subsist on less, and can be easily replaced with their oh so capable AIs. Time will tell how things go, but I’m seeing a lot of violence and turmoil in my country’s future because so many people remain complacent.