Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić, a former water polo star, came under pressure to resign on September 29 after opposition councillor Tatjana Mićić accused him of physically assaulting her, leaving her with a broken nose.

Former Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, who will lead the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) ticket in an October 25 snap parliamentary election, said Šapić should take political responsibility for the incident.

“There is no justification for Aleksandar Šapić for what he did,” Vučić said, according to state broadcaster RTS. He said he was referring to Šapić’s political and public responsibility, rather than potential criminal liability.

Mićić, a councillor from the opposition Kreni-Promeni (Start-Change) movement, said Šapić confronted her and her husband while they were walking their dog on Monday evening in Belgrade’s New Belgrade district, accused her of bringing people to his home and attacked her husband. She said she intervened and was struck in the nose.

Kreni-Promeni said Mićić suffered fractures of the left nasal bone and part of the upper jaw and was due to undergo surgery. The movement called for Šapić to resign.

Šapić denied punching Mićić, saying the confrontation began as a verbal exchange and that he pushed her away only after she began pushing him.

“I did not attack the woman in question in that way, except that when she began pushing me, I moved her away to avoid any physical contact,” Šapić said at a news conference on September 29.

Šapić said he went to a police station after the incident, remained there until 5 a.m. and tested negative for alcohol and drugs.

The Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade said it was investigating a report that Mićić and her husband had been physically attacked by Šapić. Police were ordered to interview those involved and obtain medical examinations, N1 reported.

Šapić said he condemned violence against women and had never deliberately assaulted a woman. He described the incident as a political setup and said he did not know how Mićić had been injured.

Asked whether he would resign, Šapić said he would not.

“By now I should have resigned 20 times, if we’re going to look at things that way,” he said.

Šapić apologised to his party colleagues and Vučić. He said he would cooperate with authorities as they established the circumstances of the incident.

Vučić said Šapić had given him his account of events in a conversation on Monday night and that authorities should act in accordance with the law. He said Šapić bore personal responsibility as a public official and should have crossed the street rather than responded to a provocation.

Vučić also urged SNS members to avoid provocations and incidents during the election campaign.

The election follows nearly two years of student-led protests sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.