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00:00Protesters in Serbia are vowing to continue their campaign despite the resignation of
00:04the Prime Minister. Miloš Vučević is stepping down following weeks of mass demonstrations
00:10over the collapse of the roof of a train station in northern Serbia. In November,
00:1515 people were killed. The collapse has ignited long-standing anger across the country
00:20over corruption and the alleged lack of oversight on construction projects.
00:26For more, we are joined now from Belgrade by political analyst Helena Ivanov. Thanks so much
00:31for joining us, Helena. You're an Associate Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Thanks
00:37so much for your time on the programme this evening. You said a little earlier today that
00:41the resignation of the Serbian Prime Minister, it's essentially too little, too late, and you
00:47predict that this is not going to be enough to defuse tensions in Serbia. No, it's not going
00:52to be enough, and I think the events of tonight in Serbia go to prove that. There has been a massive
00:58protest in the city of Novi Sad, obviously caused by the entire situation in the country, but
01:03specifically triggered by the violence that was committed against a student girl last night who
01:08was in hospital, who was severely injured, whose jaw was broken by people who were sitting in the
01:12Serbian Progressive Party's headquarters in Novi Sad, came out and started beating her up.
01:18On top of that, we've seen protests in Belgrade tonight as well, but also across some other cities.
01:22I think that just events of this night, which follows the resignation, show that the Prime
01:28Minister's resignation is not enough, and that is very clear why. He's not the person that the
01:32student demands are targeting, and they've never actually requested his resignation in the four
01:38official demands they have right now. Exactly. So what exactly are those official demands then?
01:44At the moment, the students have four demands. The first one is that all and entire documentation
01:49pertaining to the reconstruction of the train station has to be made public. The second one is
01:54that all people who have been engaging in violence against students have to be prosecuted. The third
02:00one is that all the students who have been arrested in relation to the protests have to
02:04be released. And the fourth one is about the budgetary constraints and the budgetary decisions
02:09regarding to the universities. Of course, the first one is the most problematic one. The
02:13government initially said that the canopy was not reconstructed, then sort of admitted that it was
02:18reconstructed, that certain documentation was published. They've claimed that's it, that's all
02:23documentation. But then the university came back and said, well, actually, no, there are a lot of
02:28different documents that are missing. Now the government claims that they have actually published
02:32everything again. At one point, the president of the National Assembly said that basically this
02:36demand is impossible to fulfill because someone can always claim that one paper is missing.
02:40So it's the first one, really, that seems to be very difficult for the government to fulfill.
02:45And truth be told, I'm not even sure that at this point people believe that they will ever
02:50fulfill the first demand. Yeah, because this incident, the tragic incident involving the
02:55roof of that train station that collapsed, it seems to have served really as a lightning rod
03:00for wider concerns about corruption, about bad governance in Serbia. So talk to us a little bit
03:06more about that and what impact this might have for the Serbian president.
03:10Correct. I think, you know, this specific tragedy has really hit close to home. You know,
03:15you speak to people here in Serbia and they will basically tell you, I find myself in a position
03:20where I'm scared to walk out and walk around the street because a canopy might fall on my head.
03:24So in a sense, anybody could have been below that canopy. And that's why I think this has
03:28touched upon the lives of so many people. I think secondly, as you correctly point out,
03:33this specific tragedy sort of really puts at the forefront a lot of different issues that
03:38many previous rounds of protests have discussed. You know, the state capture,
03:42the corruption, the freedom of press, because once the protests have started,
03:46the government associated media outlets, but also the national broadcaster have failed
03:50to adequately report on what is going on at the protests. And then, of course,
03:53as violence erupted on the protests, specifically as people started running over the students with
03:58their cars or like last night, beating them up with baseball bats, that has also shown that,
04:03there are substantial problems in this country. And I think the students are really trying to make
04:10the situation better. They have four very clear demands. They're basically, all of their demands
04:14are targeting the general prosecutor. And as you point out, I think people who are supporting these
04:19protests are both supporting these demands, but they also want to see Serbia become a different
04:24society. They want Serbia that isn't as corrupt as they currently perceive it to be.
04:30Okay, we'll have to leave it there for now, Helena, but we do really appreciate your time
04:33on the programme. Thanks for being with us here at France 24. That is Helena Ivanov,
04:38she's an Associate Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, joining us tonight from Belgrade.