President to start consultations on new cabinet on Thursday

President to start consultations on new cabinet on Thursday

The consultations will take place at the president's General Secretariat at 14:00 CET, the presidential press office announced in a statement on Wednesday, carried by Tanjug.

Under the Serbian constitution, the candidate for prime minister is put forward to the National Assembly following president's meetings with representatives of all election lists.

A new government will need the support of at least 126 deputies - and considering that the SNS-led list has 131, Aleksandar Vucic will have the opportunity to once again put together his cabinet. At this time it is unclear which other parties or coalitions might join in.

Media speculated after the election that Nikolic will do away with the consultations altogether, allegedly "to avoid a meeting with SRS leader Vojislav Seselj." Both Nikolic and Vucic were high-ranking members of the SRS before they broke away in 2008 to form the SNS.

More confusion was caused by Nikolic's statement that he "thinks he won't even have to conduct consultations - considering it all depends on whether someone has secured 126 deputies to vote in favor of a government, and once there is evidence that they have, consultations are over and he gives the mandate."

However, Nikolic is under constitutional obligation to hold meetings with representatives of all elections lists before announcing the candidate for Serbia's next prime minister.