Unrest has been ongoing since the collapse of a railway station roof last November which killed 15 people.
Serbia’s Prime Minister has resigned after months of pressure from enduring protests.
Unrest has been ongoing since the collapse of a railway station roof last November which killed 15 people.
The railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, had only recently undergone repairs. The accident was blamed on poor construction work.
Despite the resignation of the transport and trade ministers shortly after the tragedy, demonstrations against the government have continued.
Last night, at least four student protesters were reportedly attacked, one was hospitalised.
Some of the students were pasting up anti-government stickers close to an office of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party at the time of the attack, according to local reports.
Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said he was resigning “after this event that took place last night” and “in order to reduce tensions.”
Vučević said the Mayor of Novi Sad will also resign.
But even the scalp of the Prime Minister is unlikely to placate the protesters.
Their anger is directed against President Aleksandar Vucic and his government who they accuse of corruption and negligence.
Transparency International said the railway station disaster was a “chilling example” of endemic corruption in Serbia, including in state-owned industry, media and impaired democratic processes.
Ever defiant, the president has offered to hold an “advisory referendum” into his own popularity.
The protests have been led by thousands of students and supported by teachers and other workers.
Serbia is an EU candidate country, but has made little progress towards completing the reforms demanded by the European Union to progress its application.
“It is clear that we need the democratic reforms to go ahead,” the EU’s then enlargement commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, warned last summer.
Relations between the EU and Serbia have been tense since the start of the Ukraine war. Serbia has a long and close relationship with Moscow.
Serbia has refused to impose sanctions against Russia and continues to buy Russian gas.
Serbia also has a close relationship with China. A Chinese consortium has a contract to carry out railway repairs, including in Novi Sad, but was not involved with the renovation of the canopy roof which collapsed, according to the government.
The protesters are demanding an independent investigation into the accident, but anger has also spread into wider discontent in the government.
President Vučić has previously claimed that the protests are being fuelled by “foreign powers”, but is determined that he will stay in office.
“If they think I’m Assad, and that I’ll run away somewhere, I will not,” he said last month in a nod to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s demise.