This week’s edition of Teen Politics: Weekly Politics Unpacked explains why the Serbian Prime Minister resigned earlier this week. In light of a recent rejection of a report on extremism’s recommendations, I encourage you to read Amnesty International UK’s report into Prevent, the government’s counter extremism program, and their petition to scrap it. But also, importantly, in light of the release of the new DeepSeek AI model shocking the technology sector, especially in the US, I recommend a DW documentary on the international battle for AI supremacy.
Will it be enough? – Serbian PM Resigns
For background, in November 2024, 15 people died at Novi Sad railway station after a concrete canopy collapsed. This sparked demands for accountability for the collapse specifically and protests against wider corruption. Over the months, these protests have involved tens of thousands and have primarily been led by students, involving stopping traffic daily and blockading universities. Ultimately, they demand charges against protesters be dropped, an end to attacks on demonstrators, and increased government spending on education. As far as accountability goes, the former transport minister, Goran Vesic, in addition to resigning just days following the tragedy, has been charged in relation to the collapse, alongside more than a dozen others as well. However, the former transport minister’s release from detention has raised serious doubts over the independence of the investigation,
Despite this, protests escalated and in December, ~100,000 people took to the streets of Belgrade, the Serbian capital, in protest, joined by smaller protests across the country. This escalation continues, with a call for a general strike being answered by many Serbians last Friday, for example schools and small businesses closed. And on Monday, the busiest road junction in Belgrade, Autokomanda junction, was the site of a 24-hour blockade. However, in Novi Sad, during the blockade, supporters of the Progressive Party, Serbia’s ruling party, attacked and injured a female student, significantly increasing tensions in the country.
Reversing previous dismissal of the protesters as being controlled by “Western foreign agents”, on Monday evening, President Vucic announced pardons for students and university tutors facing charges because of the protests. As well as a significant government reshuffle, expected to include replacing more than half of his ministers. Vucic also condemned the attackers, saying:
“We cannot accept that after calling for dialogue and complete peace, anyone in our name violates that. The guys who did that did enormous damage to the state, the party, and each of us.”
The pardons were clarified during his address on Tuesday, following an emergency meeting of the government, to include pardons for 13 people which would be signed on Wednesday. Also triggered by the attack, on Tuesday, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic – a strong ally of the President – announced he would resign, explaining he wanted:
“To avoid further complicating things, so we do not further raise tensions in society, I made this decision,”
And to encourage protesters to “calm down the passions and return to dialogue”.
Vucevic, who is the leader of the Serbian Progressive Party, was in office for less than a year, previously serving as minister of defence and the mayor of Novi Sad between 2012 and 2020. During this time, the railway station reconstruction was in the early stages by a Chinese-led consortium. Reportedly, the current Mayor of Novi Sad Milan Djuric is also resigning, satisfying “the most political of the demands of some of the most extreme protesters” in the words of Vucevic. And so, with the Prime Minister gone, it is now up to Serbia’s parliament to choose a new government within 30 days or call a snap election instead.
President Vucic also claimed he and the government had now met demands for transparency by the student protesters about the reconstruction of Novi Sad railway station. Despite this, the idea of a transitional government has been favoured by opposition parties with the intention of ensuring free and fair elections in light of previous accusations of irregularities during past elections. But these calls have fallen on Vucic’s deaf ears, who says Serbians “want normal people in power, not politicians who have no trust”. Instead, he revealed “three or four names” were being considered to succeed Vucevic, although it was added that he was open to other suggestions.
Although ultimately, the big question remains whether these resignations and departures will satisfy the mostly young people who have recently been escalating their regular protests. But due to lots of the actual power being with the President in Serbia, a new Prime Minister may not be as impactful as thought to be on the surface. A member of the opposition Democratic Party and former member of the national assembly, Branimir Jovancicevic, doubted that Vucevic’s resignation would be sufficient to halt the protests:
“If the president thinks that by replacing one, essentially, unimportant figure … [he] will solve the problem … he is deeply mistaken”
Along similar lines, but highlighting Vucic’s underlying attempt to retain power, the Social Democrat chair of the German Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, Michael Roth, tweeted:
“Vucic sacrifices Vucevic in order to stay in power himself.”
And even if this paves the way for new parliamentary elections, a different party in power appears unlikely at the moment, given the Serbian Progressive Party’s dominance of Serbian media, as reported by international election monitors, and its general well-organised nature.
Importantly, just over a year ago, the most recent parliamentary elections were a comfortable victory for the party. Whereas, contrastingly, the opposition remains fractured and without many allies in the media, meaning poor prospects in any potential snap election. Regardless, it will be the reaction of protesters which defines the future of the political situation in Serbia.
So now, all we can ask is, to maintain his power, did Vucic go far enough?
Weekly Recommendation and Action
This week, we also saw the UK government reject the recommendations of a report leaked by the right leaning think tank Policy Exchange, instead expressing a desire to continue to “focus on Islamist and far-right ideological drivers” through the Prevent counter-extremism program currently in place. Although Amnesty International UK has found the Prevent program and duty to violate fundamental human rights to non-discrimination and freedom of expression and assembly amongst others in their report titled ‘This is the Thought Police’. In line with criticism and recommendations by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Amnesty International UK is campaigning to scrap Prevent – a petition I would urge you to sign.
Last, but certainly not least, the release of DeepSeek AI this week has caused incredibly significant disruption to the US approach to AI development. However, this fundamentally highlights the emerging war over AI, which has the potential to define future international power dynamics and conflict. To better understand this, I’d recommend this DW documentary on the battle for AI supremacy.
Teen Politics 
Leave a comment