Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced that he will step down from his post, but he clearly has no intention of leaving politics. Rather, it is a tactical move that will allow him to regain control of the country.
More than a year and seven months after a canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad train station, killing 16 people, sparking the most massive protests in Serbia in years, President Aleksandar Vucic has announced that he will resign.
However, his resignation is far from a capitulation. The ruler of Serbian politics for the past 12 years has no plans to leave, on the contrary - he would help his "Serbian Progressive Party" win the parliamentary and presidential elections that will be held next year.
"This is not the end of Vucic", commented to "Reuters" and political analyst Radivoje Grujic. "He has a plan that certainly does not include his retirement from politics."
Is Vucic planning to become prime minister?
Expectations are that he wants to become prime minister again - a role he played in the period 2014-2017. The president and his party accuse the protesters of wanting to destroy the country, of not having a concrete plan and also of being mobilized from outside.
At the same time, the dissatisfaction with the authorities in Belgrade, whose spark was ignited by the students with their protests, is directed against Aleksandar Vucic and company. The protesters accuse him of corruption, nepotism and repression. The media in the country complain of pressure, and “Reporters Without Borders” placed the country in 104th place in its Freedom of Expression Index. “Despite the serious legal framework, journalists (in Serbia) are subject to political pressure, and the crimes committed against them remain unpunished,” the organization writes. During the protests alone, over 100 journalists have been victims of violence, including by police.
A number of human rights organizations, including the Swedish “Defenders of Civil Rights”, have raised the alarm that protesters are becoming victims of violence, arrests and threats.
Vucic portrayed the protesters as a threat from outside
On Sunday, thousands of those dissatisfied with the government gathered in the town of Kraljevo in the region of Rab, where they demanded early elections. There, DW spoke with Milan Janic, who recounted how his son was arrested during the protests exactly a year ago. “He is currently being prosecuted for obstructing an official in the performance of his official duties and for assaulting an official. This government will stop at nothing,” says Janic. He adds that there are still ordinary people who unfortunately believe the claims of the ruling party: "What hurts me the most, believe me, is when they ask me how much we are paid for this," the man says.
Vučić's resignation is a tactical maneuver, not a capitulation, since his second term ends in May next year anyway, and he will not be allowed to run for president again. Observers assume that he will appoint a confidant as his successor so that he can continue to exercise power. If Vučić leads the list of the "Serbian Progressive Party" and is subsequently elected prime minister, he will be able to continue to govern the country, commented the Swiss "Neue Zürcher Zeitung".
The day before the protest in Kraljevo, the president gathered his supporters in Belgrade, where he again blamed the students who started the protests. He has repeatedly called them foreign agents who threaten the Serbian state. In the first months of the mass protests, they refused to field a political representation that would confront the president's party. Now, however, they have announced that they will participate in the elections with their own list. According to sociologists, it could threaten the dominance of the ruling party.
Early elections - a proven tool of Vučić
This is not the first time that Aleksandar Vučić has called early elections; the country has already voted early four times since he came to power. However, at each of the votes, observers, human rights activists and the opposition spoke of large-scale manipulation and pressure on voters, as the Swiss publication also notes.