Analyst thinks Serbia is now "closer to elections"

Analyst thinks Serbia is now "closer to elections"

Goati added he saw "only some far away interest behind this case," and that the footage "could increase the gulf and lead to a split in the ruling coalition between the SPS and the SNS."

At this time, he observed, the SNS could form a government and stop using its second in strength coalition partner.

"That coalition that is in power and where Vucic is the prime minister is theoretically called 'too broad' and such coalitions have a natural tendency toward erosion and dissolution, to be reduced to a number that is necessary, and hypothetically in that case, the Socialists would not be needed," Goati thinks.

Asked whether he "expect competent authorities to react," he said: "All of that has been spoken about and proved."

According to Goati, Dacic has shown himself to be "a great political player and a man of enviable skill who managed to bring the Socialists back to life and make them relevant - and also very skillfully slip out of the Suitcase Affair."

"Farther from elections"

Leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Serbia's Foreign Minister and First Depty Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has said that Serbia is now farther from elections than it has been so far, "because of the attempt to force early elections with secret footage showing him meet with (a member of a drug clan) Rodoljub Radulovic and with affairs."

"Knowing that (Prime Minister Aleksandar) Vucic cannot tolerate blackmails and anti-campaigns, I am confident that we are today much further away from elections than we have been so far," Dacic told a press conference on Tuesday.

At the time when the videos were taken, in 2008 and 2009, the SPS was in a coalition with the Democratic Party led by Boris Tadic, now at the head of the Social Democratic Party.

Tadic said on Tuesday that, at a meeting of the National Security Council in 2009, he was informed about the existence of different video recordings, including the one of Dacic's meeting with Radulovic, as part of the plan for fighting organized crime and drug trafficking.

Commenting on that, Dacic said that both him and Dragan Sutanovac, the then defense minister, were members of the Council, but had no knowledge of the footage.

Dacic also said there were obviously "para-police forces which worked for one person" and that the recordings of him and Radulovic are used for blackmail and causing political earthquakes.

The SPS leader noted that his party believes that elections are not needed when there is political stability, adding that those responsible for the recordings wanted to provoke political instability and chaos, in order to force early elections.