**Changes in Serbia‘s Ruling Coalition**
A recent wave of protests in Serbia has led to changes within the ruling coalition. Unlike earlier protests, this time they have resulted in charges against several government officials.
According to Politico, the student and civic protests that followed a tragic accident at Novi Sad Railway Station have had a significant impact. The collapse of a concrete awning on November 1 killed 15 people.
**Protests Put President Vucic on the Back Foot**
The protests could make Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic “unusually vulnerable”. Politico reported that Vucic appears increasingly shaken by the student protests. At a recent government meeting, he claimed that anti-government forces are planning to weaken Serbian authorities in the northern province of Vojvodina.
However, an unnamed local leader dismissed this accusation as false. Novi Sad is the main city in Vojvodina, where Serb nationalists have made claims about separatists wanting to secede from Serbia for years. The region enjoyed substantial autonomy in the former Yugoslavia.
**Analysis**
Lawyer and human rights activist Milan Vujic said that President Vucic’s “fear-mongering claims” are a way of deflecting attention away from his current problems. Vujic believes that the students’ strong resistance to government threats and violence has led Vucic to use a familiar tactic: introducing a polarizing topic and targeting usual suspects, in an attempt to divide and rule.
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