Serbia’s president-elect on his critics, Merkel and the outlook for the region.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić sat down with POLITICO on Wednesday for his first extensive interview since winning his country’s presidential election in a landslide.
During the election campaign Kosovo was not much of a topic for the presidential candidates in Serbia. Some have visited Kosovo but without much fanfare, and the winner although he announced his Leposavić's election rally, dropped out of the visit.
According to the head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić, Vučić has won the votes of 80 per cent of voters who on Sunday went to the polls.
Deputy SNS Marko Đurić said that from so far processed causes the current Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić has won 80 per cent of votes at polling stations in Kosovo.
Đurić says that Vučić won nearly 33 000 votes, adding that it is 10 per cent more than in the previous parliamentary elections.
Political analysts said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s presidential election victory gives him almost unassailable power and means the opposition must change its strategy.
Analysts giving instant reactions to Vucic’s first-round poll win on Sunday suggested that his triumph puts the Progressive Party leader in an unprecedentedly strong position to take the country in his chosen direction for the next five years.
Political analyst Cvijetin Milivojević and editor of daily Danas Dragoljub Draža Petrović estimate that opposition candidates in the presidential election have not done enough to fight for fair electoral conditions. Whoever thought that would beat Vučić in such circumstances was or naive or was joking, said Milivojević.
Petrović said that these elections looked like "Vučić's easy morning run." He believes that in these conditions the opposition should boycott and not to spread false hope that did not exist.
Publicist Veton Surroi posted on his Facebook account today that Aleksandar Vucic was Minister of Information in the Serbian government when “Serbia was killing two-year old children in Kosovo”. Surroi writes: “On April 2, 2017, Aleksandar Vucic was elected President of Serbia. On April 2, 1999, Aleksandar Vucic was Minister for Information in the Republic of Serbia.
Eric Gordy, professor at the University College London, told Radio Free Europe that Aleksandar Vucic’s victory in the Serbian presidential elections will not bring anything new in the policy that Vucic has led so far as Prime Minister of Serbia and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party. “Vucic will keep playing the card as an acceptable option for the West.
With the victory of PM Aleksandar Vucic in the presidential elections, the office of the head of the Serbian government has been vacated.
A new government will be formed within the next two months, Vucic said late on Sunday.
While he was still the presidential candidate of the ruling coalition and his SNS party, Vucic on one occasion remarked that he "had some names" - but would not say publicly who would replace him as prime minister.
SNS leader and Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic has declared his victory in the presidential elections held in Serbia on Sunday, April 2.
The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) announced on Monday that based on 90.86 percent of electoral material, Vucic won 55.09 percent of the vote.
He is followed by Sasa Jankovic (16.26 percent), Luka Maksimovic (9.04), Vuk Jeremic (5.33), and Vojislav Seselj (4.47), RTS is reporting.
Serbian PM and presidential candidate Aleksandar Vucic has announced that he would not travel to Kosovo where he was to hold a rally in Leposavic on Wednesday.
"I will not take orders from them (Pristina) on whether I would arrive with Vulin, Stefanovic, or somebody else. You won't see that movie," he said late on Tuesday, adding that he canceled the trip "so as not to expose Serbs from Kosovo to unpleasantness."