Serbian government sets up snap vote with call to dissolve parliament

Upcoming election viewed as bid to tighten Vucic’s rule after months of mass street protests.

Serbia’s government has proposed the dissolution of parliament, paving the way for early elections.

‌Prime Minister Djuro Macut announced the call in Belgrade on Monday. The move to a snap election is seen as a bid to tighten the rule of President Aleksandar Vucic after nearly two years of anti-government unrest.

Parliamentary elections were not due until December next year, but Vucic on Monday announced plans to hold a vote in late October, with speculation rife that he will seek to move into the role of prime minister.

The early election will test how secure a grip on Serbian politics Vucic still enjoys. The veteran authoritarian leader has run the country as president or prime minister for ۱۲ ⁠years.

However, massive and persistent anticorruption demonstrations, following the killing of ۱۶ people when a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in ۲۰۲۴, have presented him with his sternest challenge yet.

The student-led protest movement has long demanded early elections.

“If we want to mitigate tensions in society there is no better way than to ask people,” Macut said as he announced the dissolution call.

“Serbia has faced protests, blockades, deep divisions, problems in education and heavy pressure on institutions,” he told ministers. “For some time, parts of the public have been calling for early parliamentary elections,” adding that “a responsible government never ignores such demands.”

Vucic is expected to set ⁠a date for elections in the coming days. According to the constitution, between ۴۵ and ۶۰ days must be allowed for campaigning.

The president has already said that the vote will be held on either October ۱۸ or ⁠۲۵.

The election would allow Vucic, whose Serbian ⁠Progressive Party nominated on Saturday to run for prime minister, to try to reassert his authority.

The ‌opposition and demonstrators accuse Vucic and his allies of violence against political opponents, rampant corruption, ties with organised crime and ‌stifling ‌media freedoms. The president and his circle have denied any wrongdoing.

Vucic’s opponents have condemned the fact that Serbia’s bid to join the European Union has stalled. The president has instead worked on maintaining close ties with Russia and China.

Vucic has faced additional EU pressure in the past week over public homage to war criminal Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander, who was buried as a hero in Serbia on Monday despite his United Nations court conviction.