BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced Monday he is firing the defense minister after he made a sexist remark to a female journalist.

Vucic said that Bratislav Gasic "can no longer be the minister of defense."

Gasic sparked outrage when he made a derogatory comment Sunday to a journalist from B92 Television who had knelt down in front of him to avoid being in the way of cameras.

Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox

B92 reports that when Gasic arrived at a press conference, "he asked whether his ministry's spokesman 'kept them outdoors the whole time,' and then said, using the feminine noun for 'journalist' in Serbian: 'I so like these journalists who kneel this easily.'"

Vucic said he was sorry for his minister's words.

"I think we have to protect all women in Serbia," Vucic said. "There is no excuse or apology that can justify what Bratislav Gasic has done."

Opposition parties and journalists' groups in Serbia earlier had called for the ouster. The left-leaning Democratic Party described Gasic's remarks as "bullying, sexism and verbal violence."

The country's equality watchdog also said the comments were "inadmissible and insulting."

Gasic has publicly apologized to the journalist, saying he "sincerely regretted" what he said.

Vucic responded that "it is good that he has apologized and that he regrets what he has done, but that is not enough."

Gasic is one of Vucic's closest allies and a vice-president of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party. The opposition in the past has demanded Gasic's ouster many times over several reported scandals, but Vucic had previously refused to let him go.