Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic believes that a new Serbian government will be elected this week.
"It is up to us to lend a hand and we will always lend a hand", he stressed in a video address last night, broadcast by the national broadcaster RTS. "(...) The state must exist, it must work, I believe that a government will be elected next week," the president said.
He added that if a government is not elected by Easter, it will be by May 1.
After the concrete canopy of a railway station collapsed in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad on November 1, killing 16 people, Serbia has been gripped by demonstrations, work stoppages and acts of civil disobedience. The protests and demonstrations were mainly organized by students who blocked over 60 faculties in four cities and leveled accusations of corruption and nepotism against the government and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
The government, led by Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, was elected on May 2, 2024. At the end of January this year, Vučević resigned, which was confirmed by the parliament on March 19, and a 30-day period for the election of a new cabinet began. Vučević resigned after an attack on students in Novi Sad, where, according to the students, a group of men came out of the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party and chased youths who were putting up stickers and drawing graffiti around Novi Sad with baseball bats.
On April 6, the Serbian President handed a mandate to form a government to the non-partisan candidate Prof. Dr. Đuro Măsut. He has until April 18 to form a new cabinet.