In the speech declaring himself the winner, Vucic said he was proud to have received a second term without having to go through the ballot attachment. “A big thank you to the citizens of Serbia he said . I am infinitely proud and infinitely happy”.
The composition of the new Parliament
Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is estimated at around 43%, followed by opposition United for Serbia’s victory at around 13%. The Serbian Socialist Party, a longtime SNS ally, is in third place with 11.6% of the vote. The rightwing coalition of Nada (Hope for Serbia) and Moramo (Toblach), an alliance of green movements and parties, received 5.4 and 4.3 percent of the vote, respectively. Since the Serbian Progressive Party does not have a majority of 250 seats to govern alone, it will have to look for coalition partners.
An election in the shadow of pandemic and war
With the slogan “Peace and Stability”, Vucic convinced voters to go ahead with him. An election that took place in the shadow of war in Ukraine, weakened with the ups and downs of the pandemic but not yet eradicated. A campaign whose initially dominant themes were the fight against corruption and crime, strengthening democratic rights and protecting the environment, issues that remained on the sidelines, overwhelmed by the looming war and Serbia’s stance on the armed conflict in Ukraine, not so far away.
And the new tensions that have arisen with the Russian armed intervention, along with fears of possible spread of instability and threats to the Balkans as well, have given Vucic’s campaign further motivation and impetus, which add to the great economic and modernization results of the A Country, which has been preserved by its administration for the last decade, it has positioned itself as the only true political leader capable of keeping the bar straight and peace and stability not only for Serbia but for the whole guarantee region.
One eye on the EU and another on Putin
However, the war has put Serbia, and Vucic in primis, in an awkward position visàvis the European Union, with which accession negotiations are ongoing. While condemning violations of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, Belgrade refuses to abide by international sanctions against Moscow and invokes Serbia’s national interests, most notably the supply of energy at discounted prices and assistance in the thorny issue of the Kosovo. “The main thing for the future is to preserve peace and stability and to ensure the continuation of economic progress,” said Vucic, whose selfconfident and muscular politics increasingly took on nationalpopulist tones.
The opposition forces that boycotted the last general elections in June 2020 took part in Sunday’s general elections and their participation appears to have helped mobilize the electorate with a significantly higher turnout compared to the last election.