Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic won a resounding endorsement in Sunday’s general election for his policy of pursuing EU membership, securing four more years in power with a parliamentary majority.
However, he will have to contend with a resurgent ultra-nationalist opposition which rejects integration with the EU and demands closer ties with Russia.
Vucic went to the polls two years early, saying he wanted a clear mandate from Serbia’s 6.7 million voters for reforms to keep EU membership talks launched in December last year on track for completion by 2019.
Even though Vucic presided over a period of austerity, partly forced on him by the terms of a 1.2 billion euro (US$1.35 billion) loan agreement with the IMF, voters again strongly backed the 46-year-old, who is a former hardline nationalist.
His conservative Serbian Progressive Party was set to win just under 50 percent of the vote, up from 48 percent two years ago, pollsters CeSID projected.
“This is an historic result, getting more votes in absolute numbers and in percentages than two years ago when we started difficult reforms,” Vucic said.
“Today’s result strongly supports our democracy, diplomatic efforts and European integration,” he said.
Vucic must now decide whether he will rule alone or seek to broaden his support further by continuing to govern in coalition with the Socialists — who came second with about 11.6 percent of the vote — or another party.
The election marked a resurgence by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj — who was acquitted by a UN tribunal in The Hague last month of war crimes during the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia.
The Radicals were set to win about 7.8 percent of the vote, turning them into the third-biggest party in parliament after a four-year absence from the assembly.
They could turn into a thorn in Vucic’s side, resisting his pro-EU policies and calling instead for an alliance with Russia.
Seselj voiced disappointment with the result but said “in future debates we will show we are superior to our opponents.”
The pro-EU Serb Democratic Party — which won about 6 percent of the vote — complained of scattered irregularities that favored the Progressive Party, saying some voters had been given ballots that were already filled in.
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