Serbia: Vučić’s party wins, opposition protests
After almost all votes have been counted, the nationalist SNS under Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has won a clear lead in snap parliamentary elections with around 47 percent. Observers and the liberal opposition alliance Serbia Against Violence (SPN) — second with 23 percent — accuse the government camp of massive vote rigging. The SPN has issued a call for protest. Europe’s press takes stock.
Fiasco for the opposition
Vreme analyses the consequences for the alliance that opposed Vučić:
“If Vučić’s result is correct, the democratic and pro-European opposition has suffered a fiasco despite a relative success. It is more or less exactly where it was before the elections. ... Serbia Against Violence is disputing the SNS’s election results. In addition to accusations of electoral fraud, it has announced that it will appeal to the state electoral commissions and also bring criminal charges. But what will it gain from this? And what will it do if the relevant authorities don’t cooperate? ... Is Serbia sliding into a new political crisis, or is this the swan song of a generation of opposition politicians?”
Dancing at two weddings
Serbia is already doing an impressive balancing act, Corriere della Sera comments:
“Despite growing dissatisfaction, Vučić is seen on the international stage as the only credible leader capable of managing relations with Kosovo and Belgrade’s diplomatic balancing act between Russia and the EU. ... But Serbia’s balancing act threatens to become even more complicated: unlike its neighbours Bosnia, Albania and North Macedonia, whose governments unreservedly support European integration, Belgrade — a candidate since 2012 — has not joined the sanctions against Moscow because it wants to avoid damaging its relations with its brother country, on which it is dependent for energy.”
