On Sunday Serbia voted on the election of the new president of the republic and the renewal of the single chamber of parliament. According to the preliminary results, there will be no big surprises: With 50 percent of the votes counted, projections suggest that incumbent President Aleksandar Vučić will be reelected by the centreright Serbian Progressive Party for a second term with more than 60 reelections out of a hundred preferences .
The former head of the Serbian armed forces Zdravko Ponos, candidate of the opposition coalition United Serbia, will be awarded around 15 percent instead. In the parliamentary elections, Vučić’s party, in coalition with the Serbian Patriotic Alliance, should get 46 percent of the vote, while United Serbia, which includes the Socialists, should stay at 12 percent.
Vučić is 52 years old and has dominated Serbian politics since 2012: since then he has been a minister several times, then prime minister and since 2017 president of the country. Although the powers of the President in Serbia are mainly formal, Vučić’s role in recent years has allowed him to massively consolidate his party’s control over Serbian politics and society.
In fact, the Serbian Progressive Party has around 700,000 members, one in ten Serbs. Without a party card, it is virtually impossible to get a job in the public sector whose control extends to newspapers and television, both public and private.
Serbia, Presidential Election:
50% counted
Vučić (SNS + EPP): 63.0% (+7.9)
Ponos (USS&D): 14.8% (1.6)
Jovanovic (NADA*): 5.2% (+4.2)
…+/ vs. final result 2017
Source: Electoral Commission RIK
➤ https://t.co/eWnraQ39P8# Izbori2022 #Srbija #Serbia #SerbiaElections pic.twitter.com/BIhbJDZUdK
Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) April 4, 2022
In recent years, Vučić who has a past as a radical nationalist and as a minister during Slobodan Milošević’s tenure has paid particular attention to the country’s economic growth and maintained a policy of equidistance between the European Union of which they are part or aspire plus almost all countries on the Balkan Peninsula and Russia, with which Serbia has traditionally maintained important cultural and economic ties.
This was also reflected in the positions taken by Serbia on the war in Ukraine: Vučić condemned the invasion of the country, but did not join the sanctions against Russia decided by the European Union, which instead expected similar measures from all official candidate countries of the European Union, like Serbia. It appears to be a position widely shared by citizens: according to a poll released last week by the respected Demostat Institute, about half of Serbs believe their country will remain neutral and not openly side with the European Union or Russia should ask.
The election campaign was indeed dominated by war: the opposition had tried to stake it on the fight against corruption and against Vučić’s excess of power, but ran into trouble because in such a situation the President in office was able to to focus on the stability it can guarantee.
On Sunday evening, Vučić commented on the projections that his party could also count on a solid majority in parliament (at least 126 out of a total of 250 seats), but did not refer to a possible new government alliance with the Socialist Party of Ivica Dacic, with whom he has been associated since 2017 had reigned.
Also read: Finland has always been ready