The authoritarian president must fear losses in Sunday's parliamentary and local elections. Belgrade could also lose its party. The opposition hopes for the beginning of the end of the Vučić era.
Broad-shouldered whippers set the pace in the packed Belgrade Arena. “Aco Serbe, Aco Serbe,” chant campaign workers tested in stadiums in the upper tiers. Aleksandar Vučić's name appears on the hall's signs in red letters. With his right hand clenched, the all-powerful president of Serbia walks to the pulpit to deafening applause. “This is our Serbia!”, proclaims the figurehead of the ruling national-populist party, SNS, to the frantic applause of his audience: “You are the power of Serbia! We will win more convincingly than ever before!”
It was just 18 months ago that the Serbs elected their last parliament. And once again campaign vehicles circulate through the ailing Balkan State. The SNS used hundreds of buses to transport thousands of coercive supporters and sympathizers from all over the country to the big rally in the capital: it is above all the fight for the Belgrade City Council that is affecting both the government and the opposition parties before the start of parliamentary elections. and local elections on Sunday electrified.