Serbia’s president says he won’t flee his country like Syria’s Assad did despite growing protests

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president accused Tuesday foreign intelligence services of trying to unseat him in the wake of spreading protests in the Balkan state and that he wouldn’t flee the country like the ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

President Aleksandar Vučić posted a video message on Instagram saying: “I will fight for Serbia and serve only my Serbian people and all other citizens of Serbia, I will never serve foreigners, those who seek to defeat, humiliate, and destroy Serbia,” he added.

Opponents of the populist leader compared him to Assad who fled to Moscow following a stunning rebel advance, ending his family’s half-century of iron rule.

Vučić’s opponents in Serbia have compared him to Assad and other world dictators, predicting that he may also try to flee the country if he loses his firm grip on power amid the protests triggered by a rail station roof collapse in the northern city of Novi Sad that killed 15 people on Nov. 1.

The protesters in Novi Sad, Belgrade and other Serbian cities have blaming the deadly collapse on rampant corruption in the country that led to sloppy renovation work on the station building in Novi Sad — part of a wider deal with Chinese state companies involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the Balkan country.

The canopy collapse has became a flashpoint for broader dissatisfaction with Vučić’s growingly autocratic rule, reflecting public demands for democratic changes in the country.

In the video, Vučić alleged that the spreading protests, which have recently been joined by university students, are financed from the West with the intention of toppling him and his government from power “with various hybrid tactics being employed to undermine the country.”

“If they think I’m Assad, and that I’ll run away somewhere, I will not,” Vučić said.

Vučić said that in the next few days and weeks, he will expose “in full detail how much money was paid over the last four years to destroy Serbia” and make it a vassal state, “which would not make its own decisions or choose its own future, but instead would have to listen to and serve someone else.”

The Balkan nation is formally seeking European Union membership while maintaining very close ties with both Russia and China. Vučić, who claims political neutrality of Serbia, has repeatedly pledged never to join Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

In a move that could further derail Serbia from its proclaimed EU ambitions, national parliament lawmakers have begun deliberating a bill that would establish a “foreign agents” registry — a carbon copy of a restrictive law previously adopted in Russia.

The bill aims to regulate organizations and individuals receiving more than 50% of their funding from foreign sources. Critics both within Serbia and internationally have warned that such a law could stigmatize civil society organizations, hinder their operations and limit freedom of expression.