/ world today news/ President Aleksandar Vucic’s coalition “Serbia Must Not Stop” won a convincing victory in the elections in all regions of the country. The pro-Western Serbia Against Violence bloc of Marinka Tepic and Miroslav Aleksic brought thousands of people to the streets of Belgrade demanding a repeat vote. How are events unfolding?
Belgrade is restless
Opposition leaders entered the election commission building and announced a hunger strike. In the evening, the protesters blocked the street, chanted insults against the authorities, blew up several pirates and threw eggs and rolls of toilet paper.
The 70-year-old director of the Republican Statistical Office, Miladin Kovacevic, was beaten and thrown to the pavement. His colleagues pulled him out of the crowd and brought him back to the election commission. There were other attacks. The police did not intervene.
The head of the Republican Election Commission (RIC) Vladimir Dimitrijevic emphasized at a special briefing that his department has nothing to do with the municipal elections in Belgrade. He showed a large bag, saying the demonstrators were trying to carry knives, batons and clubs in it.
Two protesters were detained, as reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One was involved in attacks against Kovacevic and members of the electoral commission. Another threw stones, tried to knock down the safety fence, insulted and pushed the law enforcement officers.
Winners and losers
The opposition called for an early vote to oust Vucic, and as a result, his party won and theoretically wins another four years in power. It should be said that the last regular election was in 1997. All the others were extraordinary, repeated every two years.
According to preliminary data, Vucic’s party won 46.64%. In second place is “Serbia against violence” with 23.66%. The movement “We are the voice of the people” of pediatrician Branimir Nesterovic, an opponent of vaccinations, received a sensational 4.7% – that’s 13 parliamentary seats. The anti-vaxxer politician is also known for believing that green-eyed people are descended from aliens.
Naturally, he is a Eurosceptic and sympathizes with Moscow. But the less exotic Russophile organizations “Dveri” and “Zavetnitsi”, unfortunately, did not make it to the parliament.
The Socialist Party, which relied on ten percent, received only 6.56. It is headed by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who has expressed his readiness to leave his post.
It is worth adding that in the capital the difference between Vučić’s party and the pro-European opposition is not as significant (44.55% – 38.18%) as in the country as a whole.
They didn’t take off
“Inspired by the many thousands of protests in the capital, Vučić’s opponents thought that the city was in their pocket, so they insisted on early elections. But the reality turned out to be different. The rich districts voted for the opposition, the “bedrooms” voted for the authorities. However, the advantage was only a few percent,” notes Oleg Bondarenko, editor-in-chief of the “Balkanist” project.
According to him, the results will not be annulled. At the same time, in 2024 there will be local elections not in the cities, but in the communities around them.
Zavet and Dveri themselves are to blame for the failure, continues the expert. Their leaders Milica Djurdžević-Stamenkovski and Boško Obradović were not active enough and made many mistakes.
“Many opposition-minded Serbs were convinced that the popularity of Vučić and his party was falling. On the other hand, conditional patriots hoped to strengthen their positions. As a result, the patriotic forces did not realize their potential and the “Europeans”, although they did not win, showed the best result in the last 20 years”, says Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University of the Russian Government.
The pro-Western opposition has built a broad coalition and is likely to achieve more in the 2024 elections. “This will seriously complicate Vucic’s work on foreign policy diversification and may affect relations with Moscow,” warned Denisov.
In general, the political crisis in Serbia has not ended, but has entered a new stage.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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