(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, APR 16 - Serbia's parliament elected a
new government Wednesday led by a political novice after months
of student-led anti-corruption protests brought down the
previous administration. The Balkan nation has been mired in
political turmoil since former prime minister Milos Vucevic and
other senior officials resigned in January amid marathon
protests sparked by a railway station disaster that left 16
people dead. "Serbia is tired of divisions and blockades," the
newly elected Premier Djuro Macut, an endocrinologist, said
while presenting the proposed cabinet in parliament. It includes
20 members of the previous cabinet, among them the heavyweight
finance, interior and defence ministers. "You look more like a
second-hand government than a new one," Aleksandar Jovanovic, an
MP from the opposition Ecological Uprising movement, said during
the debate. The opposition, which said the government shuffle
would only deepen the crisis, had pushed for a transitional
government to pave the way for new elections. It particularly
criticised the nomination for education minister -- a hot topic
after months of student-led demonstrations and teacher strikes
-- which was given to a political analyst close to the governing
Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vucic.
(ANSA-AFP).
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