Buying votes, pressures, propaganda machinery - all that SNS was not enough for a convincing victory in Zaječar and Kosjerić. Do the local elections herald the end of the political power that Vučić has been building for years?
Local election results in Zajecaru i To Kosjerić show what research has been suggesting for months - the Serbian Progressive Party is in decline, not only in urban centers, but also in areas where citizens have traditionally been more exposed to pressure, propaganda and vote-buying.
"These elections are a clear indicator that the struggle of students and citizens against the regime is yielding results, but at the same time that it will take time. The regime will use absolutely everything to retain power. There is no backing down for them, they will push to the end, unhindered. We will have to be ready for it. We can see the direction, we are on the right path, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Victory is certain, but it will take effort and time," says Miloš Bošković, a Niš political activist.
"Pyrrhic" victory of the progressives
In an interview with Vreme, political scientist Milorad Đurić claims that the progressive victory is "Pyrrhic" and that the student-citizen block has no reason to be dissatisfied. As he says, "situations like this are rare, in which the so-called winners have no reason to celebrate and in which the 'losers' have no reason to be dissatisfied."
"One could truly say that it is about the victory of the 'losers' and the defeat of the 'winners'," says Đurić.
He adds that in politics, "the trend is much more important than the current state of things."
"The election results of the Serbian Progressive Party in Kosjerić and Zaječar reveal a very unpleasant fact for them, which shows that the ruling party uses more and more 'resources' and achieves worse and worse results," says Đurić.
A fight that will last.
Although the opposition did not formally win, what they did in Kosjerić and Zaječar - in the conditions of irregular elections and huge disproportion in resources - is an important political fact.
Đurić says that the conspicuous absence of any optimism in the election headquarters of the Serbian Progressive Party is precisely the consequence of the fact that the party has recognized an unstoppable and undoubtedly downward trend. On the other hand, the student-citizen-opposition conglomerate without the "resources" at the disposal of the regime achieves better and better results.
In football terms: they played barefoot against professionals in equipment worth tens of millions of euros, who also had the referees on their side - and drew.
"These elections are a clear indicator that the struggle of students and citizens against the regime is yielding results, but at the same time that it will take time. The regime will use absolutely everything to retain power. There is no backing down for them, they will push to the end, unhindered. We will have to be ready for it. We can see the direction, we are on the right path, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Victory is certain, but it will take effort and time," concludes Bošković.
Read the entire text in the new issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday, June 12.
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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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