Victory in Serbia poll a boost for EU plans
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PRIME Minister Aleksandar Vucic won Serbia’s presidency in the first round, nearly complete official results showed yesterday, enabling him to push forward with his plan to lead the Balkan country into the European Union.
Vucic won about 55 percent of Sunday’s vote, far above the 50 percent threshold required to win in the first round, the results based on more than 90 percent of polling stations released by the state electoral commission showed.
Two obstacles for EU membership talks, started in 2014, seem to have been removed.
Vucic’s predecessor Tomislav Nikolic, a pro-Russian member of his Serbian Progressive Party, is likely to retire from political life.
And ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj, who was burning European flags to show his opposition to Serbia’s EU bid, won less than 5 percent of the vote.
But Vucic, a 47-year-old hardline nationalist turned pro-European, still has to overcome the reluctance of a large part of his electorate, who cleave to historic ties with Moscow and are not passionate about the EU.
Vucic, prime minister since 2014, has time as the next parliamentary election is only due in 2020.
“Vucic was a candidate taking into account EU membership talks which require notably changes to the constitution and maybe new prerogatives for the president,” said political analyst Jadranka Jelincic.
“We will see a sort of ‘presidentialization’ in Serbia,” said independent analyst Boban Stojanovic. “I expect Vucic will have the final say in all decisions.”
Serbia’s next government will be led by a prime minister who would be a person of trust who would not overshadow Vucic.
It would also have to follow the political “direction” that Vucic says voters chose in electing him.
“The vast majority of Serbia’s citizens are for the continuation of reform, for Serbia to keep to its European path and maintain the links that we have with Russia and China,” a thrilled Vucic said on Sunday.
Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn congratulated Vucic yesterday.
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