Sawt Falasteen - Serbian president stable in hospital after cutting short US trip

The news of Vucic's hospitalisation comes as he faces a widespread protest movement over a deadly accident at a train station in the northern city of Novi Sad.

After coming home from the United States without meeting US President Donald Trump following pain in his chest, Vucic "was admitted to the Military Medical Academy immediately after landing" in Belgrade, his office said.

Several hours after his admission, cardiologist Dragan Dincic told journalists that his state was "stable and satisfactory", which should allow him to be discharged within the day.

According to Dincic, who heads the Serbian army's health directorate, Vucic felt "intense chest pain" while in the United States, with American doctors registering a high blood pressure reading.

"The American doctors carried out all the necessary tests, and the president, contrary to their recommendation, decided to return home," he said.

But Dincic said it was unrealistic to expect the president to be able to fully resume his regular activities in the coming days, adding that Vucic had encountered "similar problems" three times in the past 10 years.

Vucic, elected in 2017 following three years as prime minister, was previously hospitalised in 2019 for heart issues.

- 'Fiasco' -

Vucic has been confronted with a wave of demonstrations sparked by the roof collapse at the Novi Sad train station in November 2204, which killed 16 people.

Many in the Balkan nation blame the collapse on chronic corruption and a lack of oversight over construction projects.

Ahead of his trip to the United States, Vucic had said he planned to meet Trump twice, and hinted at "important meetings" with top Republican and US officials in a video published on his arrival in Florida.

Opposition figures were quick to brand Vucic's trip a failure.

"He's covering up his fiasco with a story about a sudden health problem forcing him to rush back to Belgrade. There are no medicines in pharmacies in America," quipped Zdravko Ponos, leader of the centrist Srce party and a fierce critic of Vucic, and who ran against him in the 2022 presidential vote.

The announcement also casts doubt over Vucic's promised visit to Serbia's traditional ally Russia for celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on May 9.

Vucic said Thursday that he would keep his word to Vladimir Putin and join around 20 world leaders travelling to Moscow for the occasion, commemorated with great pomp and an army parade on Red Square.

But the trip would have risked the wrath of the European Union, which Serbia wishes to join, and which has sanctioned Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would not take responsibility for the security of foreign leaders in Russia.

Russia denounced the Ukrainian leader's comments, branding them "a direct threat" to the celebrations.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST