(Adnkronos) – Foreign minister Antonio Tajani has issued a call for calm and dialogue in Serbia on Friday as hundreds of striking students continued a two-day march from Belgrade to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to blockade three bridges this weekend.
“Dialogue must prevail and there must be no use of force or violence,” Tajani told reporters in Belgrade, where was attending an Italy-Serbia business forum.
“I hope that greater calm will return in Serbia in the coming days,” Tajani said.
Tajani “appreciated” Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic’s overtures to the student protesters and his “attitude of availability and willingness to listen to young people,” he said.
“There is no need for Italian interference in Serbian internal affairs, what interests us is the stability of such an important country”, Tajani said.
The student bridge blockage is planned for Saturday to mark three months since a huge concrete canopy collapsed at Novi Sad train station, killing 15 people and triggering months of demonstrations, forcing Serbia’s premier Milos Vucevic’s resignation this week.
Many Serbians believe the Novi Sad railway station tragedy was due to government graft and a lack of oversight of a large infrastructure project with Chinese state companies, allowing shoddy building work that breached safety regulations.
The protests have turned into the most serious challenge in years to Vucic, a powerful populist leader who has served as president since 2017, securing his second mandate in 2022.
Vucic has 28 days to propose a new prime minister designate, or face a snap election.
