Serbia’s Protests Test Strongman Leader’s Grip on Power
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President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia, battered by months of nationwide protests, is struggling to weather his biggest political crisis in more than a decade of rule.
Reporting from Novi Sad, Serbia, Belgrade and villages in northern Serbia
Serbia’s authoritarian leader should be riding high, lifted by economic growth that is four times the European average, falling unemployment and steadily rising wages.
Instead, President Aleksandar Vucic, battered by three months of nationwide street protests, is struggling to weather his biggest political crisis in more than a decade of strong-arm rule.
Leading the charge against him have been students in wealthy cities like Belgrade, the capital. To try to get them off the streets, the government said in December that it would offer young people state-subsidized loans of up to about $100,000 to buy apartments.
Student representatives had a blunt response: Keep your money.
Also joining the protests have been older, less privileged Serbs, people on whom Mr. Vucic previously counted for support by providing their villages with new roads, sports halls and other facilities.
When students in Belgrade marched for 60 miles last week through villages and small towns on their way to Novi Sad, a thriving northern city on the Danube River, Dusko Grujic, 68, a farmer, cheered them on.
Serbia’s economy, Mr. Grujic said, standing next to his aged tractor piled with bales of hay, is not as robust as official statistics suggest, and food prices are too high. But he added that his main gripes were about corruption, highhanded officials and Mr. Vucic’s tendency to cast all criticism as the work of foreign agents and traitorous political rivals.