Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic floated the possibility of a snap election in April after his prime minister resigned on Tuesday amid growing anti-government protests.

Prime Minister Milos Vucevic became the highest-ranking official to step down in the wake of a roof collapse at a railway station in the city of Novi Sad in November which killed 15 people and sparked months of demonstrations.

His resignation has destabilised Vucic’s government and prompted the opposition to call for the formation of an interim government.

In a televised address on Tuesday evening, Vucic said that his party would take 10 days to decide whether to form a majority government or hold a snap parliamentary election.

“The new election could be held in April,” Vucic said. “An interim government is out of question.”

The statement marks a stark turnaround for Vucic, whose party easily won a snap election in 2023 but who has come under increasing pressure more recently.

What began as small gatherings in Novi Sad have ballooned and spread to the capital Belgrade in recent weeks. Students, teachers and other workers have turned out in their thousands to blame the station disaster on corruption within Vucic’s government.

The minister for construction, transportation and infrastructure, and the trade minister have already stepped down because of the incident, but that failed to quell the protests.

“I opted for this step in order to defuse tensions,” Vucevic told a news conference on Tuesday, announcing his resignation. He said the mayor of Novi Sad would also resign.

“With this we have met all demands of the most radical protesters.”

Students who have been leading the protests were not mollified.

“Those who have been fuelling tensions for the past 13 years are now trying to defuse tensions,” Lazar Stojakovic of the Faculty for Organisational Science at Belgrade University posted on X.

“It is not going to work, you were beating us, running us over (with cars), you beat up our colleagues in Novi Sad, See you in the street again.”

STRATEGIC PLAYER

Vucic is seen as a strategic player on the international stage in view of Serbia’s historic ties with Russia and the West. Serbia is a candidate to join the European Union, although it must normalise relations with its neighbour and former province Kosovo.

Opposition parties and rights watchdogs accuse him and his SNS party of bribing voters, stifling media freedom, violence against opponents, corruption and ties with organised crime. Vucic and his allies deny these allegations.

The opposition Kreni-Promeni party has called for an interim government made up of experts approved by the students. It has urged other opposition parties not to boycott elections if they are held.

The protests, which included students putting up a blockade at a main junction in Belgrade this week, have been largely peaceful.

But three protesters in Novi Sad were attacked on Monday and blamed members of Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). A young woman sustained head injuries and was hospitalised.

The police detained four people over the incident, the prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad said in a statement.

Thousands of students gathered in Novi Sad on Tuesday afternoon to protest against the beating of their colleagues.