Ana Brnabić has said that she was close to being reappointed as Prime Minister of Serbia even though, as she pointed out, there would be another candidate from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the race for the position of prime minister.
Speculations are rife that the current mayor of Novi Sad, Miloš Vučević, who has been considered Vučić’s most likely candidate for Prime Minister since the beginning of the electoral race, alongside Ana Brnabić, will be the second candidate.
“My rival is a candidate from our party. He is an excellent, phenomenal person, who will enjoy my support at all times. I have also told this to President Vučić,” said Brnabić, without revealing the second candidate’s name.
However, sources close to the Serbian government claim that this candidate is Miloš Vučević, known as Aleksandar Vučić’s person of confidence.
Vučević has shown his loyalty to the SNS party in his two terms as mayor of Novi Sad, but he is also very close to the president’s brother, Andrej Vučić, and is the man who not only runs the capital of Vojvodina, but the entire autonomous province.
The mayor runs his city like a mini-Belgrade, copying the ideas implemented in Belgrade. One example is that, despite questionable safety and opposition from experts, he is building the Novi Sad Waterfront complex because of which he plans to change the course of the Danube river.
Vučević has also allowed the demolition of monuments and cultural buildings under state protection, such as the old Armenian cemetery, giving the land to the construction company Galens for the construction of condominiums and luxury hotels.
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Despite his unpopularity in Novi Sad, Vučević’s position was cemented precisely because of his enormous obedience to the President.
Even if he did not become head of the government, it is highly likely that Vučević will be given a position in the government.
In the case of Vučević’s appointment as a government minister, lawyer Milan Đurić, now municipal secretary for administration and regulations, could succeed him as head of the city of Novi Sad.
Đurić was born in 1977 in Novi Sad and graduated from the Faculty of Law in 2002. Since 2005, like Vučević, he has worked as a lawyer and after the SNS came to power, in 2012, he became a member of the City Council for Administration and Regulations, a position he still holds.
(Nova.rs, 04.08.2020)
https://nova.rs/politika/vucicevi-kandidati-za-premijera-ana-brnabic-i-milos-vucevic/
This post is also available in: Italiano