The possibility of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić running for prime minister in the next parliamentary elections, whenever they may be, is no longer in doubt. It is almost certain that, after he fulfills his promise and resigns from the position of president, he will lead the parliamentary list of the Serbian Progressive Party in the next elections.
However, for now it is completely uncertain who will be the candidate for prime minister on the opposite side. The student movement has not made a statement yet, and the opposition says that everything will be known when the time comes.
Analysts, however, remind that there is no formal candidacy for the prime minister, because the prime minister is nominated by the party that secures the majority in the Parliament, and therefore one should not fall for progressive provocations. And the question is how is Vučić sure that SNS will win the elections and secure a majority so that he can get the mandate to form the government.
Reacting to the claims of the pro-government media that the previously mentioned holders of the student list, Rector Vladan Đokić, i.e. Milo Lompar, a professor at the Faculty of Philology “are not an adequate answer to the dominant and charismatic figure of Aleksandar Vučić”, Danas interlocutors reply that there is no dispute that the student and social movement with the opposition parties have a real breeding ground for candidates for prime minister. They note that the government actually has a staffing deficit. They have only one single candidate for everything and no backup.
* What Vučić announced that he will run for is to be the holder of the SNS list
Bojan Vranić, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, recalls that the student movement has not yet come up with names, and the prime minister has even less reason to do so.
“There is no candidacy for prime minister, because the prime minister is nominated by the party that secures the majority in the assembly. Furthermore, what Aleksandar Vučić announced he would help the party with is the list holder, and that is something that everyone participating in the elections must formally have. Therefore, the question of candidacy for prime minister is irrelevant, such a candidacy does not exist, except as part of political marketing,” Vranić points out.
According to him, the parliamentary opposition has even less reason to nominate someone for prime minister, since before that it should be known whether they are going to the elections and whether they are running for a program (EU, national issues, etc.) on the basis of which they will become visible in what will evidently be a struggle between the SNS and the student movement.
*The key battle will be around people who want change but fear change
Dušan Milenković, a political consultant, notes that the key battle will be fought around people who want change, but are afraid of change, primarily because of economic uncertainty.
Whoever wants to win power, and at the moment the biggest challenger is the student list, must not fail, says our interlocutor, to offer those people credible voices and experts in the field of economics, and especially must not fail to propose concrete policies and measures in that field.
“The aforementioned people are afraid of the economic consequences of the change, it is necessary to draw what the economy will look like after the change of government, and how the change will be controlled and lead not to stability but to significant progress in relation to this moment,” notes Milenkovic.
* The problem is exclusivity of various kinds, egoism, vanity
When asked if the students and the opposition are late with key decisions, given that Vučić and SNS have gone far in the election campaign, not only visiting Serbia, but also offering citizens, thanks to state resources, some benefits, Dragomir Anđelković, a political analyst, says that there is no delay.
“If you proceed rationally with the true intention of making the overthrow of the regime a priority, the opposition and students can find a candidate who can defeat Vučić. Based on surveys, focus groups, political and marketing analyses, an adequate common candidate for prime minister would be found. It is not true that this is not possible in principle, but the problem is exclusivity of various kinds, egoism, vanity and the like. All of this constitutes a key obstacle for the joint performance of students and opposition parties in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.” says Anđelković.
* Every candidate is adequate “against usurpers and destroyers”
Answering the question whether the students and the opposition have an adequate candidate to match Vučić, as a candidate for prime minister in the election campaign of activist and writer Novi Nebojša Milenković says that the term “adequate” is disputed, as opposed to usurper and destroyer.
“Against the usurpers and destroyers, every candidate, or even better, a female candidate, is adequate. The question is whether we have a candidate who can win. If the opposition had one – it would certainly have already produced one. Therefore, due to reduced legitimacy and damaged trust, the opposition would have to withdraw and leave the choice of candidates to students and citizens. This is no longer about who will come to power – but, literally, about the survival – of society, the state, institutions. And as for the candidate – I know at least ten of them,” claims Milenkovic.
* The opposition corps is a hotbed of personnel for the prime minister
And political analyst Srećko Đukić believes that there is no dispute that the student and social movement with the opposition parties have a real breeding ground for candidates for prime minister.
“The regime has only one single candidate for everything, there is no backup. Everything is up to him. To be is not to be. Without him, there is no SNS. And therein lies the problem of an absolutist regime that has no alternative. As long as he exists, there is a party, without him there is no power. We see the struggles and the gymnastics that Aleksandar Vucic goes through in elections from house councils and local communities to general elections,” notes Đukić.
And he notes that he could count at least a dozen excellent candidates for prime minister from the academic community, science, business, politics, culture, journalism…
“Take new forces from the universities in Nis, Belgrade, Novi Sad…People who created the business with their own hands…Brilliant journalists and journalists…But every name I would mention now, and I could list at least ten, would be subjected to the warm rabbit of the regime and its media. That is why it should be left when the time comes. The race will be run by new forces with a spent leader who must plug all the regime’s holes, spinning a worn record,” says Đukić, asking if they can today imagine honest, fair democratic elections, in which there is no theft in Serbia and in which the media is completely free. Along with the questions comes the answer that no one can imagine that in Serbia today.
*Serbia does not have a problem with a lack of candidates for prime minister, but with an excess of positions appropriated by one man
The opposition expressed its readiness to perhaps support the student presidential candidate, with certain fences and if presidential and parliamentary elections are not scheduled at the same time, but they also announced that they will go to the parliamentary elections independently.
One column will be made up of the pro-European opposition, and the other will be the authentic right. We did not receive a concrete answer to the question of who would be the holder of their list, that is, a possible candidate for prime minister.
“If the SNS nominates Aleksandar Vučić as the prime ministerial candidate, it will be a formal recognition of what the citizens have seen for years, that there is no government or institutions in Serbia, but that all power is in the hands of one man. The paradox is that a man who is already the president of the Republic, who decides on everything from foreign policy to the price of bread on a daily basis, is now looking for another position in order to hide the fact that he no longer has results or personnel capable of carrying responsibility independently. This is not a demonstration of strength, but an indicator of political weakness,” he told Danas. Stefan Janjić, deputy of the Serbia Center SRCE party.
As for the pro-European opposition, as he says, it should not participate in Vučić’s reality show in which the elections are reduced to the issue of one man.
“Our answer must be a team of people who will return the country to its citizens and institutions. Serbia does not have a problem with a lack of candidates for prime minister, but with an excess of a man who has usurped almost all state functions. And when the time comes for the election of a prime minister, citizens will have the opportunity to see the difference between the people who want to lead the government and the man who has been trying to be president, prime minister, minister, prosecutor, and editor of all televisions at the same time for fourteen years,” says Janjić.
“To support a common candidate for prime minister, we all need to agree on the Government’s program”
And Dušan Radosavljević, co-president of the monarchists and deputy of the NADA coalition, reminds that it is not yet known whether there will be parliamentary elections along with the presidential elections.
“Vučić is already announcing himself as a candidate for prime minister, because they do not have a good solution for the new president of Serbia, so they want to emphasize the function of the prime minister, not the republic. The monarchists and the New DSS, that is, our NADA coalition, when the parliamentary elections come, will highlight the program of the authentic right in the foreground, which way Serbia should go after the fall of Vučić and how we see its arrangement, return to normality and recovery, explains Radosavljević.
He notes that changing the system and program is more important than personnel solutions.
“We are ready to support a common candidate for the president of Serbia, because that position does not have the authority that the Government of Serbia has under the constitution, but to support a common candidate for prime minister, we need to all agree on the Government’s program, which I don’t think is possible. We are very clearly for maximum cooperation with the EU, but against membership, while others from the opposition and students are for unconditional membership. This does not mean that after the parliamentary elections, we cannot cooperate in dismantling the evil order of Aleksandar Vučić, creating conditions for normal and fair elections and on all the issues we can agree on.
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