Brussels – Early general elections in Serbia are now official: voting will take place on 25 October, 46 days after the announcement made live on television at midday today by President Aleksandar Vučić, who signed the decrees dissolving the National Assembly. The next expected steps are Vučić’s own resignation from the presidency—a necessary step for him to stand as a candidate—and the calling of early presidential elections, likely before the end of the year.
The vote comes after months in which the president had hinted at his intention to take up the challenge issued by the student movement and the parliamentary opposition, who had been calling for early elections for over a year. Having drawn large crowds at the funeral of Ratko Mladić, the “executioner of Srebrenica” and a war criminal sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Vučić will now take to the political arena himself at the helm of the United Serbia coalition, standing for the post of prime minister.
In his address to the nation, the president justified the decision by citing the need for a clear mandate: “Serbia needs election results that can clearly define and demonstrate the will of its citizens regarding the direction and path the country intends to follow. I believed, and still believe, that Serbia has chosen a sound European path, while preserving its traditional friendships, national pride, and dignity.”
There was no shortage of attacks on the student movement, which has been at the centre of the protests in recent months: “It is impossible to engage in dialogue with someone against whom a campaign of dehumanisation is being waged and who labels you as non-human. That is why we need election results that clearly demonstrate the will of the people.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
