Trying to defuse large protests by environmentalists, Serbia’s populist government said that it was canceling all licenses for mining giant Rio Tinto to open a lithium mine in the Balkan country.
“We have fulfilled all the requests of the environmental protests and put an end to Rio Tinto in the Republic of Serbia,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said in a televised address. “Everything is finished. It’s over.”
The protests posed the biggest challenge yet to the increasingly autocratic rule of President Aleksandar Vucic, who has denounced the road blockades as illegal and claimed they are being financed from abroad to destabilize the country. Earlier Thursday, Rio Tinto in a statement expressed “concern” over reports that the project would be scrapped.