A wave of protests hit Serbia after the collapse of a railway station roof in the city of Novi Sad killed 14 people last week, forcing Construction Minister Goran Vesić to resign.
Thousands gathered on Sunday at the Serbian capital’s main railway station — now defunct but still a national cultural monument — to demand accountability for what they consider a manmade tragedy. Vesić had initially refused to take responsibility for the accident.
“I cannot accept blame for the death of 14 people because neither I nor the people who work with me have the slightest bit of responsibility for the tragedy that happened,” Vesić said Monday at a press conference.
The train station in Novi Sad, 100 kilometers northwest of Belgrade, has had to be renovated twice in recent years, with critics blaming the shoddy work on widespread corruption and a lack of transparency. The renovations were part of a broader agreement with Chinese construction firms.
After announcing his resignation during Monday’s conference, Vesić went through the timeline of when documents for the design and reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad were issued, pointing out that only the final design was submitted by the firms responsible during his mandate. He added that it had not even been approved yet by the ministry.
He suggested that his predecessors and the construction companies involved were responsible for the accident, and warned members of his own party who had criticized him but refuse to take any blame themselves: “I’ve always had honor, and I’ll do my best in the coming period to show how much they don’t have it.”
Opposition politicians were quick to slam him. “Goran Vesić is one of the people most responsible for massive corruption in construction, for the policy of secret contracts with investors, and this is now leaving behind human victims,” Radomir Lazović, co-chief of the opposition party Green-Left Front, said.
He is calling for the opening of “all secret contracts, which have become the rule with Chinese contractors,” as well as an audit of all works that have been done under Vučić’s rule in recent years.
Vesić did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO. His resignation is an unusual move for a member of the country’s populist government, which has refused to budge during previous protests.
Originally built in 1964, the renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vučić and his ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in 2022 as a key stop on a proposed high-speed train route connecting Belgrade and Budapest.
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