The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, ruled that the Belgrade elections will not be held on April 28, as he had previously announced, but on June 2. He also postponed the continuation of the constitution of the Assembly of Serbia. The cards are dealt again, the question is who holds what trump cards. And did a completely different game begin
The President of the country, Aleksandar Vučić, does not function well under the pressure of crises that he did not plan to cause. He loses his temper, makes hasty moves. So this time, under pressure from outside and inside, he first announced holding the Belgrade elections for April 28, then them moved to June 2nd. The continuation of the constitutive session of the National Assembly was scheduled for today, so he moved it to next Monday.
All this jumps out of his constitutional authority, but he doesn't even try to stick to any form anymore.
The role of Ivica Dačić
Political problems in Belgrade are also reflected at the republic level. Just then, Vučić thought that in the extraordinary elections on December 17, he returned Ivica Dacić and his Socialists to the place he predicted for them, when now his blackmailing potential is growing again as the importance of the outcome of repeated extraordinary elections in Belgrade grows more and more after the government caught in election fraud. The Belgrade elections have been raised to the level of a fateful battle for the survival of the Serbian state, that is, the survival of the Serbian Progressive Party in power, and there will be no semblance of victory for the Serbian Progressive Party without the Socialist Party of Serbia.
It wouldn't be the first time for Dacic to switch to the side in which he recognizes the winner at the right time, his public pledge to commit to a coalition with the progressives means nothing. That's why Vučić has been pointing poisonous arrows in his direction these days, making allusions precisely to Dacić's flight from earlier in Belgrade, which he called "betrayal".
It will be that the continuation of the constitution of the Assembly of Serbia has been postponed because the bargaining over the distribution of functions has not yet been completed. And while his authority at all levels and on every basis was unassailable, the highly experienced Vučić would carefully put together the personnel puzzle for months, so that by chance someone would not lose control or show some weakness. He always insisted that the coalition at the republican level should also be reflected in local environments, especially in Belgrade
Now he will have to hurry up with the division of roles and tasks under the changed circumstances, because the new thing in the power game in Serbia is the significant consolidation of a decade and a fraction of the disunited opposition.
Mature opposition
Not only does the "Serbia against violence" coalition manage to act quite coherently, but the strategic and tactical cooperation and coordination with the center-right NADA coalition, which achieved excellent results both in Belgrade and at the national level, is almost cemented. All opposition leaders became aware of the so-called synergistic effect.
And the opposition does not stop there. One gets the impression that this time he is working to ensure that not a single percentage is lost, so Boris Tadić will probably also come under the umbrella of "Serbia against violence", negotiations are underway with Sava Manojlović and his movement Go-change...
On the other hand, there is already timid talk about the possible joining of Dvera to the right-wing opposition bloc led by the president of the New DSS, Miloš Jovanović, it seems that after the December elections, the resigned Boško Obradović wanted to return to the political scene. There is also Saša Radulović.
There are different opinions regarding one or two ideologically clearly defined opposition columns. Jovanović and Radomir Lazović from the Green-Left Front are of the opinion that it is more effective to go to the elections separately, but to cooperate closely in the fight to establish democratic rules. However, everyone is ready to talk, on this issue mostly the opposition leaders declare "one by one".
Certainly, the ProGlas initiative, which does not appear as a political factor, has a significant cohesive role both on the opposition scene and in society, but it is very clear where it stands politically.
This maturation of the opposition, which has suddenly been recognized as a political factor in the West, needs to be opposed. Vučić's long-announced Movement for the People and the State, which also aims to suck up everything that can still be sucked up on the political and social training ground, has not yet come to life, and he predicted, among other things, that the Socialist Party of Serbia would completely dissolve in it and submit to the undisputed leader.
New fighting spirit
"Now the priority is for the elections on June 2 to be with better election conditions, and we have to work on that." Certainly, only together in a broad front can we achieve a final victory over the group of people who occupied Serbia", wrote Miroslav Aleksić, president of the People's Movement, on the X social network.
Miloš Jovanović also spoke in the same tone: "Setting June 2 as the date for holding elections in Belgrade makes sense and is a step in the right direction only if the ruling majority understands that the elections must be fair and together with the representatives of the opposition starts working on improving the electoral process." conditions". He called on the authorities to "appeal to reason".
In the ranks of the opposition, concrete threatening tones can be discerned. Everyone is aware that the upcoming elections will be neither fair nor free, because for Vučić, that would mean cutting off the branch on which he is sitting. On the other hand, he would not be very comfortable if the opposition boycotted the elections in Belgrade - he would like to create the image that he "disrupted" them - but he could live with that. The opposition must feel what, if any, concessions Vučić is ready to make.
However, recently, quietly, but quite decisively, the opposition ranks have been broadcasting messages that, if the conditions for the elections do not fundamentally change, the opposition will not "boycott" the elections, but will "prevent" them from being held.
It's the announcement of a whole new game.
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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