Serbia’s Ruling Pro-European Party Appears Headed for a Win
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Version 0 of 1. BELGRADE, Serbia — The pro-European party that has led Serbia since 2012 appeared headed for a big victory in a snap election on Sunday, even as right-wing nationalists made gains. In the election, Serbia’s third in four years, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party had secured 49 percent of the vote with 82 percent of the ballots counted, according to preliminary results released by the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, an independent monitoring organization, the Serbian state broadcaster reported. Mr. Vucic’s coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia, was projected to win 11 percent of the vote, according to the initial results. A pro-Russian party led by Vojislav Seselj, who was acquitted at The Hague last month of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, was receiving 8 percent of the vote, enough to secure representation in Parliament. Four other parties or coalitions of parties also appeared to win enough votes to gain seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was about 55 percent, but some members of the opposition raised concerns about voting irregularities. President Tomislav Nikolic called the early elections after Mr. Vucic, who has been prime minister since 2014, said he needed a new mandate to pursue an economic agenda that would lead to Serbia becoming a member of the European Union. Mr. Seselj, however, has called for “integration with Russia” and declared that “all Serbia’s traditional enemies” are in the European Union. Many Serbs consider Russia, a fellow Orthodox Slavic country, to be Serbia’s most reliable ally. Mr. Seselj’s surprise acquittal on March 31 after a lengthy trial that included years in detention bolstered his party, the Serbian Radical Party, which traditionally espoused a “Greater Serbia” including territory in neighboring countries, like Bosnia and Croatia. As a young man, Mr. Vucic himself was an ardent nationalist and a minister in the government of the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who faced war crimes charges at the time of his death in 2006. Mr. Vucic has since assumed the mantle of a pro-European reformer. His endurance is a sign that Serbs remain willing to pursue a path to the European Union, despite economic sacrifices and concessions in regional policy. In recent years, Serbia has also made progress in its relations with Kosovo through European Union-brokered talks. Kosovo broke away from Belgrade’s rule in 1999 with the help of a NATO bombing campaign, and declared independence in 2008, though Serbia officially still considers it part of Serbian territory. While more than 100 countries, including the United States and most European countries, recognize Kosovo’s independence, it remains unrecognized at the United Nations thanks to a Russian veto. But improving relations with Kosovo’s government is a prerequisite for Serbia’s European Union membership. “Vucic staying in office will not particularly affect the region, given his cooperation with the E.U.,” said Boban Stojanovic, a political scientist at the University of Belgrade. Opponents accuse Mr. Vucic of using European Union ambitions to mask traits that belong to the Milosevic era: centralizing power and enriching his inner circle. The European Union has particularly criticized constraints on media freedom. Konstantin Samofalov, spokesman of the pro-European Social Democratic Party led by Boris Tadic, Serbia’s president from 2004 to 2012, accused the Vucic government of “erosion of media freedom, destruction of democratic institutions and devastation of the Serbian economy.” But liberal opposition to Mr. Vucic is fractious, divided on personal rather than political grounds, as the results showed. Mr. Vucic has said he will use a new, four-year mandate to push the difficult reforms needed for union membership. These include judicial, economic and political changes that experience from other former Communist countries in the region suggests will be complicated and often unpopular. His party’s campaign focused on the message of four more years of stability to secure the nation’s future. The liberal opposition was portrayed as yesterday’s leaders and corrupt, and the nationalists as reckless anti-Europeans who would put the country at risk. During the campaign, the government said that postelection priorities would include privatizing state-owned enterprises, cutting the huge bill for public wages and attracting investors to Serbia, a strategically located country with low costs and favorable trade ties with the European Union, Russia and the Middle East. Many here doubt Mr. Vucic will deliver those reforms, but he continues to enjoy international support. “As I see it, the Serbian government would be capable of concluding E.U. membership talks in the next four years, with strong political will,” said Liselott Agerlid, deputy head of mission at the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade. “That wouldn’t mean, though, that membership would follow immediately.” |