Serbia - Election 2017
Following the 2016 early parliamentary elections, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) maintained its parliamentary majority. The new government took office in August, renewing the coalition between the SNS, the Socialist Party of Serbia, and their respective junior partners. In the subsequent local and provincial elections, the SNS further strengthened its political dominance, including through control of both the legislature and the executive at national, provincial and local self-government levels.
Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was the presidential candidate for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in elections in April 2017. He had worked tirelessly to implement the reforms demanded by the EU, and usher in dialogue with the former southern province of Kosovo. Brussels saw Vucic as a prototype Balkan leader who, more than anything, can deliver. Vucic faced rivals from a fractious opposition in the elections. Serbia's presidency is a largely ceremonial post. But if Vucic controlled both the presidency and the comfortable majority the SNS held in the 250-seat parliament, he could wield formidable political power.
Vucic had the support of 56.2 pct of the voters ahead of the April 2 presidential elections in Serbia, the 29 March 2017 Demostat survey showed. Around 18 pct of respondents were still undecided. Presidential candidate Vuk Jeremic said Monday a run-off presidential election was a certainty and that the regime knew who had the capacity to deliver a "political knock-out" to it. "There is no doubt any more that a second round is certain," Jeremic said in the Belgrade municipality of Surcin, noting that "hours and hours of programming" on all national television channels were suggesting the opposite and aiming at him as the prime target.
Vucic, a former hardline nationalist, was confident of winning the first round vote largely because of his existing grip on the country’s powerful institutions – including the mainstream media - combined with a fragmented opposition. After Vucic’s party took power in 2012 and because the government in office before them lost the confidence of the population, they started to build this machine of control that was able to exact pressure on a number of voters and this helped them to secure much more votes than they would really receive if everything was transparent.
"The state of the media reflects the way Aleksandar Vucic rules Serbia - using pressure, abuse and often false statements," Sasa Jankovic, Serbia's former human rights ombudsman who was polling a distant second or third. As the first round of voting approached, the campaign has become increasingly tense, with insults traded, biased media coverage and a clear division between supporters and opponents of the ruling SNS presidential candidate and acting Prime Minister Vucic. Nominally there are 11 candidates, but judging by realities on the ground there's Vucic - and then the "others." The campaign was marked by arrests and a crackdown on opposition figures. The negative campaign was supported by pro-regime media and tabloids.
Vucic was taking an increasingly autocratic approach to government across all levels. Serbia's governing Serbian Progressive Party had a small, well-organized army to troll the internet on its behalf. It created a parallel reality where everything in Serbia is great, and critics are simply enemies of the state.
Serbia Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic swept the first round presidential election, coming in with 56 percent of votes, according to a result projection by the Ipsos polling group. If the projection held above 50 percent, the 47-year-old conservative will have avoided an April 16 run-off. Ipsos projected former ombudsman Sasa Jankovic getting 15 percent of the vote. Twenty-five year old student Luka Maksimovic, more commonly known as Ljubisa Preletacevic or Beli, came in in third with 9.3 percent, a surprise for a candidate who based his campaign on mocking Serbian politicians.
The role of president is mostly ceremonial, Vucic would retain real power through his political party, the Progressive Party. As such, the election was unlikely to alter the country's delicate balancing act between the European Union, which Vucic wanted Serbia to join, and Russia, with which Serbs share their Orthodox Christian faith and Slavic heritage. Vucic was widely expected to appoint a loyal ally as prime minister to try to keep a tight rein on policy, as former President Boris Tadic, then of the Democratic Party, did between 2004 and 2012.
Serbia's president nominated Ana Brnabic on 16 June 2017 as the country's next prime minister, making her the first openly gay premier in the Balkan region and the first Serbian woman in the top job. Brnabic's government needed formal approval by Serbia's parliament. Vucic called the appointment "a difficult decision reached in the interest of Serbia and its citizens." Brnabic was currently government minister of public administration and local government. Vucic, a former extremist-turned-reformist, has promised to boost gay rights as part of efforts to move closer to European Union membership. He was sworn in as Serbia's president on May 31 to succeed Tomislav Nikolic.
The ruling coalition’s parliamentary practices led to a deterioration in legislative debate and scrutiny, and significantly undermined the parliament’s oversight of the executive. There is an urgent need to create space for genuine cross-party debate and conditions for the opposition to participate meaningfully in the parliament. The role of independent bodies needed to be urgently guaranteed and supported.
Practices of the ruling coalition often prevented the parliament from properly exercising its legislative function. These included merging unrelated laws under one discussion point, and proposing hundreds of amendments irrelevant to the content of legislation. These practices, which aim to use up the allocated time for debate in the plenary, have been employed systematically since December 2017. In addition, the use of urgent procedures remains high at around 44% from February 2018 to February 2019. As a resul, the parliamentary opposition in most cases was not able to participate effectively in the legislative debate and to present its draft amendments, including on key legislative pieces such as the 2019 budget. As of March 2019, several opposition parties, including those in the Alliance for Serbia, started boycotting parliamentary sessions, also at provincial and local self-government level. Some opposition members continue to participate in the parliamentary committees. In the current polarised environment, it is crucial that cross-party debate and meaningful participation in the parliament are restored as a matter of priority.
The parliament’s oversight of the executive remains weak. The parliament failed to support the role of independent institutions. Since 2014, the parliament has not discussed any of the annual reports by independent bodies in its plenary sessions, exemplifying its lack of willingness to ensure effective oversight over the government. The holding of regular question and answer sessions with the executive has increased and five such sessions were held in 2018. Only one public hearing was held in 2018. The lack of annual work plans and the ad hoc nature of agenda setting led to uncertainty. Non-majority representatives headed only two parliamentary committees.
Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, a former ultranationalist who became an advocate of closer ties with the West, faced weekly demonstrations from opposition groups that accused him of increasingly authoritarian rule. Protest rallies started after the Serbian Left party leader Borko Stefanovic was assaulted on November 23, 2018. The opposition parties blamed the incident on what they describe as an atmosphere of violence and intimidation imposed by Vucic’s populist ruling coalition. The protesters' demands include President Aleksandar Vucic's resignation.
Demonstrators were further angered by a firebomb attack on the home of a journalist, Milan Jovanovic, in Belgrade's suburb of Grocka in December 2018. The attackers hurled a firebomb at a car in the garage and fired a pistol at the door as the house burned. The reporter escaped from a rear window. Jovanovic said he was targeted over his reporting about corruption in his municipality.
Serbian opposition parties said they have begun boycotting the national parliament in a show of solidarity with a wave of protests against President Aleksandar Vucic. The Alliance for Serbia, a grouping of opposition parties and organizations, said on 11 February 2019 that its lawmakers won’t take part in parliament sessions until the protesters’ demands are met and “conditions are created for free and fair elections."
The boycott was not expected to halt the work of the legislature, where Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its Socialist allies hdld 160 of the 250 seats.
Thousands of Serbian antigovernment protesters marched for the 11th consecutive Saturday on 16 February 2019. The march in Belgrade included the collection of signatures for the "Covenant With The People" -- a petition initiated by opposition groups to call for fair elections and more public control over the state. The demonstrators had been demanding Vucic’s resignation and early elections, accusing the president of stifling democratic liberties, cracking down on political opponents, and controlling the media.
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