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Vučić has more and more fears, but one of the biggest ones is the elections at every level, both parliamentary and in Belgrade, because in every major city he would certainly lose the elections...
The current government can boast of very few things as successful in Belgrade. In these conditions, it will try to postpone any elections in the hope that the situation will change and in order to keep the mandates in the capital until the end of the legal term, writes Danas, commenting on the possibility that the parliamentary elections, whenever they take place, will also be held in Belgrade.
Aleksandar Vučić, the President of Serbia, last mentioned the elections in Belgrade a little over two months ago, when he revealed that he wanted to see the possibilities and perspective of how the SNS would win them in Belgrade and Novi Sad in a year and a half or two years.
The protesting students have been demanding early general elections for 5 months, while the government ignores the demand and postpones the elections until December of this year or next year. Perhaps out of fear of losing power, but perhaps also because of the fear of possible unrest during and after the vote.
Since part of the opposition is also demanding a change of government in the capital, the question arises whether Vučić will combine voting in Serbia and Belgrade.
They won't win again in Belgrade.
Milos Pavlović, vice-president of the NPS and councilor in the Belgrade City Assembly, points out that Vučić and the SNS have certainly lost their legitimacy in Belgrade.
"Let me remind you that, despite the theft of the Belgrade elections, in December 2023, the citizens clearly expressed what they thought about them. Considering all the events of the last 10 months, I think it is politically reasonable to hold elections for the Belgrade assembly as well. But I think that Vučić will not combine the elections in Belgrade with the elections in the republic in order to keep the mandates until the expiration of the legal term. Precisely because he knows that he will not win in Belgrade again," he tells Danas.
Filip Tatalović, a DS MP, tells Danas that Vučić has been increasingly afraid lately, but one of the biggest ones is the elections at every level, both parliamentary and in Belgrade.
"His fear of elections is fully justified, because his deceptions and manipulations are no longer valid. The propaganda centers with which he shaped public opinion for years can no longer fulfill that role. Until now, Vučić called elections because, on the one hand, there were propaganda centers that did their job, and on the other, there was an elaborate technology for stealing votes. In the new circumstances, when he has been justifiably discredited, and the student movement enjoys the great and unprecedented trust of citizens, even this coordinated electoral theft can no longer help him declare victory. That is why today he is not thinking about any elections, nor about their combination, but is trying to buy time, hoping that some miracle will happen that would return him to the positions of power that he had before. But this will not happen," Tatalović emphasizes.
He adds that in reality, the exact opposite is happening, the list of students is getting stronger every day and is becoming an insurmountable barrier for Vučić and his criminal gang that has taken over the country.
"When we talk about the Belgrade elections, I am convinced that Vučić is also afraid of the elections for the SNS City Committee in Belgrade, because he knows that he will suffer defeat there as well. As for the elections for the city of Belgrade, there has been no real support for a long time and precisely for this reason he perceives these elections as the biggest danger to his regime," he emphasizes.
ZLF MP Robert Kozma thinks the same way, saying that Vučić is trying to save his criminal and corrupt regime by avoiding any extraordinary elections.
“The regular local elections in Kosjeric and Zajecar showed that the progressive regime had to mobilize all the party’s resources and its people to campaign in these places, misusing state finances to massively commit criminal acts of vote buying and, moreover, to organize criminals and thugs to intimidate citizens. All this was caused by electoral irregularities, vote buying and violation of procedures in 19 percent of polling stations in Zajecar, and in Kosjeric, where they once had a very strong majority, the result was essentially equal. This shows that in any larger city, he would certainly lose the elections. And especially in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Niš. That is why he will try to postpone any elections, hoping that the situation will change,” Kozma told Danas.
He recalls that precisely for this reason, the ZLF invited and invites all political and social actors to a conversation to agree on how to force the regime to call extraordinary elections, as well as how to control the elections and prevent election fraud, to participate in the elections and defend the victory, because this regime will not calmly accept the removal from power.
And Andrej Sevo, a research intern at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, doubts that the elections in Belgrade will be announced in parallel with the parliamentary ones, even though they are necessary.
According to him, it has long been clear, based on public opinion polls and general impression, that in some areas in Serbia, SNS local governance is hardly sustainable. This is especially true for large cities such as Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš.
“The snap elections in Belgrade would be held in an atmosphere of the most pronounced civil discontent to date. This could be seen in the protests, but it can also be felt every day in the nervousness of citizens, especially those participating in traffic. The crowds are getting bigger, the roads are being dug up without any consideration, and Caciland still occupies several hectares of the city center and permanently blocks Nikola Pasic Square. There are few things that the current government can present as a success, although it still tries to maintain the appearance of continuous work by changing the image of the city. Citizens are at best indifferent to these changes or are very irritated by them because they leave the impression of a spontaneous and bandit redevelopment of the city that no one wanted and whose meaning is not clear,” he explains.
Sevo further adds that in addition, we should not forget that the city of Belgrade is the place where some of the largest and most profitable projects for this government are planned or are already being implemented, let's just mention the Exhibition or the National Stadium.
"Leaving the completion of these projects to an additional opportunity through extraordinary local elections, as if they were parliamentary elections, seems to me like a risk that the SNS is not ready to take," concludes Sevo. / Adapted from Danas /
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