Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a meeting of his party’s top body that parliamentary elections would be held late in March of early in April 2020 and warned of changes at local level to make room for new people.

He said those elections will be “the hardest because many people want Serbia to stop being a sovereign and independent country” while others “want to rob it even more”.

Vucic told the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) main board to use the summer to prepare for elections and tell the population “the truth about Kosovo, Montenegro and our foreign policy”.

“I want you to talk to people but don’t say we did something that we didn’t do, don’t deceive them but tell them the truth,” the SNS leader said.

He said he would be visiting the SNS municipal branches in Belgrade over the next three weeks and criticised some SNS officials for wasting energy on mutual conspiracies and arguments than on responding to political opponents.

“I can’t listen to this anymore, focus on political opponents. Put your backs to it instead of always Vucic and three people around him doing it,” he said and added that SNS officials wait to see what will happen so they can find a place for themselves.

Vucic announced personnel changes in local communities ruled by the SNS and on the lists of candidates for local and parliamentary elections. He said some SNS local officials would leave their posts “voluntarily” to make room for new people.

“My proposal is to come out with a large number of new, young people who will have the desire, passion and energy to show their love of their village, town and country and how capable they are of fighting for Serbia,” Vucic said.

The SNS leader openly criticized some officials, including formerly high-ranking party official Zoran Babic for vacationing in what he said are expensive resorts and called the members of his party to step into the shoes of ordinary people.