Vowing to "continue to fight for the benefit of Maribor", Kangler accused "backstage godfathers" to be behind the Facebook profile organising protests and calling for his resignation in a statement on Thursday. The profile has generated 33,000 likes.

"I hope the backstage godfathers who are behind the Facebook profile will put forward solutions to the problems faced by Maribor in these times of crisis. It's easy to hide and call for protests, but it's much harder to take responsibility," Kangler said.

Thousands took to the streets in Maribor in the past weeks to demand Kangler's resignation due to alleged corruption an cronyism. The protests were triggered by a public-private partnership the mayor struck to install 30 speed traps across Maribor which was seen as a way to collect money rather than improve safety.

Public discontent only increased after Kangler got elected to the upper chamber of parliament on 21 November despite calls to the contrary from a crowd of thousand that gathered in front of City Hall on 21 November.

Even if he seemed to start losing political support as well with expulsion from the coalition People's Party (SLS) Kangler insisted there was no reason for him to step down.

This only led to bigger and increasingly violent rallies that had meanwhile sparked protests in other parts of Slovenia. A rally of around 6,000 on 26 November resulted in injuries as a group of hooligans clashed with the police.

Violence escalated during Monday's protest, which attracted more than 10,000 people. Close to 40 people were injured, among them 25 police officers as the police clashed with rioters storming City Hall; 119 rioters were detained.

Kangler's decision to step down comes only two days after Prime Minister Janez Janša announced that Kangler would take a sensible decision based their discussion about what to do to stop the escalation of violence in Maribor.