Vucic decides in favor of early parliamentary elections

Vucic decides in favor of early parliamentary elections

Addressing an SNS main board meeting on Sunday in Belgrade, Vucic said that the government needs a full mandate to complete by 2020 the reforms that have steered Serbia to a good and safe path.

Since the SNS has taken power, Serbia has been in a state of a latent social conflict - the SNS and the government formed by it are facing enormous opposition because they have been striving to crush a bloc consisting of tycoons, politicians and criminals who had no interest in progress in Serbia or any changes whatsoever, Vucic said.

"We have begun a conflict with them as well as with those amongst us for whom power is just a way of personal enrichment," Vucic said.

"The center of resistance to this government, to a decent and progressive Serbia and the reform policy are those who were part of the former bad authorities and the false elite created by those authorities," Vucic said, adding that the "center of resistance" has been blocking any change and progress in the country for 10 years.

By 2020, Serbia must become an orderly country that is at the threshold of the EU and without the present social conflicts, he said.

He urged the Progressives not to underestimate political opponents, wishing them a fair, serious and responsible electoral campaign.

"The citizens will know how to choose because no one can stop Serbia on its path to a better future," he concluded.

The SNS main board supported unanimously, by acclamation, Vucic's proposal to go to early parliamentary elections.

Procedure

Aleksandar Vucic as decided that the cuntry will go to early parliamentary elections - procedurally, his next step is to table a substantiated proposal to dissolve the parliament, or resign, enabling President Tomislav Nikolic to call the elections.

The polls will be the eleventh parliamentary elections, the eighth early elections and the third simultaneous parliamentary, provincial and local elections since the reintroduction of the multi-party system in Serbia.

Under the Serbian Constitution, the government's term may end prematurely through a vote of no confidence, dissolution of the parliament and resignation of the prime minister, as well as in other cases set forth in the Constitution.

The dissolution of the parliament and the resignation of the prime minister have been the most frequent scenarios leading up to early parliamentary elections in the past.

A government whose term has ended can only handle affairs set forth by law until a new government is elected.

The previous early parliamentary elections were held in March 2014.

No date yet

One of SNS vice presidents and cabinet minister Zorana Mihajlovic said that the date of the upcoming early parliamentary elections was not discussed at Sunday's meeting of the SNS Head Committee.

"This is a battle for Serbia's future, so technicalities regarding the date are less significant," Mihajlovic told the B92.

Whether the elections will be held in late April or May is less significant than the citizens having an opportunity to say what they think about the government's work, she said.

"The citizens should say whether they are satisfied with our work and whether they perhaps want those who led us backwards and robbed us, or those people who really want to make a step forward," Mihajlovic said.

The elections are an opportunity for opposition parties to also show if they are the ones capable of leading Serbia to Europe, maintaining the traditional relations with all our friends and ensuring a better life to citizens, said Mihajlovic, who is also a government minister.