Belgrade - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stepped down as the leader of his party on Saturday after more than a decade at the helm, but he is widely expected to remain the most powerful political figure in the Balkan country.
Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won parliamentary elections by a landslide last year, but has been regularly accused of corruption, as well as recently coming under increased pressure from mass protests over two shootings.
Despite no longer being party chief, Vucic will remain Serbia's president and the country's most influential politician – just as he did when he stepped down from being prime minister and became president in 2017.
The 53-year-old, who has served as SNS chief since 2012, said he would not leave the party he helped found.
"Whatever you do, I will always be with you and by your side," Vucic told party members during a televised convention.
"I just think a slightly different approach is needed to unite a greater number of forces of those who want to fight for the victory of a patriotic, successful Serbia."
Mass protests
Tens of thousands of people staged the fourth weekly anti-government protest in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Saturday after two back-to-back shootings that killed 18 people, half of them children.
Carrying flowers, the demonstrators defied heavy rain and ringed the building of the state-run RTS broadcaster, demanding the resignations of top directors and editors.
The "Serbia against violence" protests have culminated into some of the largest rallies since widespread demonstrations triggered the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic over two decades ago.
They have tapped into simmering anger at the ruling party over what protesters say is a culture of violence fanned by the government and the media outlets they control.
"I am here because I am fed up with the lies and corruption. Nothing will change here until people realise it is possible and that we do have a choice," 40-year-old Dusan Valent told AFP.
The protests took shape after the mass shootings earlier this month that left 18 people dead and wounded several others.
Nine of the dead were students at a Belgrade elementary school who were gunned down by a 13-year-old pupil.
The demonstrators also want the government to revoke the broadcasting licences of television channels promoting violent content, and a ban on pro-government newspapers that stir tensions by targeting political dissidents.
They also want the interior minister and the head of the intelligence service to resign.
Vucic initially dismissed the protests as a "political" stunt, but seemingly softened the stance towards the demonstrators.
"Those who rallied in the past couple of weeks are, for the most part, good, decent and normal people who want what's good for Serbia," Vucic said at his rally on Friday.
"Those I cannot appreciate are the politicians, who will make history with dishonour, by abusing the greatest tragedy of our people," he said, referring to the shootings.
But Vucic turned down their demand for a transitional government ahead of new elections.
Plans for new movement
Vucic has already announced plans to form a nationwide movement that is planned to include prominent intellectuals, artists and other public figures, and is expected to gradually combine with the SNS.
According to analysts, Vucic is significantly more popular than his party, which is regularly the target of accusations of corruption, and a fresh coalition would help rebrand the side, potentially avoiding poor election results in the future.
"It's a way to overcome a crisis that could potentially brew inside the Serbian Progressive Party," Bojan Klacar, the head of the independent election monitor CESID, told AFP.
"By creating a new movement, he wants to secure himself another mandate in the office," Klacar added.
Vucic's opponents accuse him of increasingly relying on autocratic measures to keep the opposition in disarray and media outlets and state institutions under his thumb.
Vucic's ruling party has also been under rising pressure over the last month, after back-to-back shootings triggered a mass movement against the government which brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets.
Defence Minister Milos Vucevic, the former mayor of Serbia's second largest city Novi Sad, was elected as the new president of the SNS party, and he immediately rebuffed the protesters.
The new SNS leader shot down a request from some of the protesters for a transitional government ahead of new elections, saying the government cannot be elected "off the streets and through violence".
Agence France-Presse