Serbia: Parliamentary election. Krastev (Balkans analyst), “triumph for Vucic, Parliament without opposition. Reforms now”

“The landslide victory in the parliamentary election is clearly a triumph for Aleksandar Vucic. There will be virtually no opposition in Parliament”, said political analyst for the Balkans, Nikolay Krastev, in an interview with SIR news agency, following the election in Serbia which brought to power again, with 62.7% of the vote, the conservative Progressive Party led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

According to Krastev, the other two political parties that crossed the 3% electoral threshold will ally with Vucic, namely “the Socialist Party, led by the current Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, and the ‘Victory for Serbia’ movement, led by former water polo player Aleksandar Sapic - a new actor on the political stage”. The analyst noted that “all other 18 political parties are below the 3% threshold, while the historical opposition, which overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2001, first decided to create a coalition of opposition parties against Vucic, but then boycotted the election, which, however, failed to get a significant result”. However, “neither the boycotting nor the anti COVID-19 measures”, according to Krastev, are the “main reason behind Vucic’s landslide victory, but the growing number of citizens who have no trust in politicians and think the situation is hopeless”. “This overwhelming majority - according to the analyst - means a very strong responsibility for Vucic, who will no longer have excuses to blame others for the things that are not working in Serbia. On his political agenda are the talks on the future of Kosovo and the reforms necessary to modernize Serbia as a precondition for joining the EU - which is another crucial issue”.
Gigliola Alfaro