Is there anyone to beat Aleksandar Vucic in the next elections in Serbia? The answer might surprise: yes, two people could do better than the current Serbian President, Novak Djokovic and Vladimir Putin. The problem is that they are not candidates and probably have other fish to fry, fortunately.
We will not dwell on the case of Djokovic, he has enough problems with his new age concerns, which seriously threaten his career. As for Putin, his popularity, on the rise in Serbia for twenty years, reached a peak after the Russian aggression in Ukraine. The murals bearing the effigy of the Russian president have been competing for a month with those of Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb general, convicted of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This is the atmosphere as the legislative, presidential and local elections approach in Serbia. Vucic convened them at a time deemed appropriate, in particular for the legislative elections, organized only two years after the last electoral deadline. The president and his Serbian Progress Party (SNS) retain media, technical and financial control of the electoral process, thus preventing the opposition from playing a level playing field.
Does this mean that these elections are lost in advance for the opposition? Yes and no. In fact, recent environmental protests against lithium mining have revealed that things are changing in Serbia. Moreover, the opposition managed to unite and offer something that could look like a serious alternative to the regime.
But on February 24 Putin attacked Ukraine…
“Peace. Security. Vucic.”
For the first few days, Vucic seemed lost. S’a