The election for local community councils in Novi Sad was held amidst obstructionism, threats, bribery and intimidation by the SNS party.
Despite all this, Aleksandar Vučić’s party lost seats in some parts of the city, and about 25 independent candidates won seats at councils. They were not endorsed by any political parties, but only by their neighbours and fellow citizens.
Although the Progressives did win most of the seats in the local community councils, it was a Pyrrhic victory – none of the SNS officials commented on the election and despite its huge logistical apparatus, the SNS party failed to mobilise its voters in sufficient numbers.
Moreover, Miloš Vučević, the city’s current mayor, has openly shown that he is afraid of his own fellow citizens.
“They are afraid because of the nature of their government, which is based on the premise that you should never lose an inch of territory. The second reason for being afraid is that they have to mobilise and motivate their members, who constitute the majority in every local community and building,” believes Biljana Stojković of the Assembly of Free Serbia, who also pointed out that the local elections are a kind of warm-up for the upcoming state elections.
“The Progressives are organised like an army or a mafia group, and if they lost the elections in a small community, they would not be allowed to appear before their supreme commander. These are just small skirmishes, for now, a military drill before the big offensive in the elections, when we are going to see what the Progressives are capable of,” Stojković says.
(Nova, 14.06.2021)
https://nova.rs/vesti/politika/kako-je-par-desetina-novosadjana-pobedilo-sns-falangu/
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