The Secretary-General of the Free Citizens’ Movement (PSG), Aleksandar Radovanović, has stated that elections in June or July are unlikely to take place, as the situation within the electorate has not changed significantly since last year and, as he claims, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) can no longer retain power, as reported by NIN weekly.
He said that periodic announcements of elections being called and of government reshuffles serve to “fill the political vacuum of Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling party”.
“Vučić would like to cut short the current uprising with elections in which, through renewed pressure on voters, fraud, and all the familiar manipulations, he would secure himself another mandate. However, after a poor result in the local elections and Orbán’s defeat in Hungary, he is not entirely certain that this will be enough this time. That is why I believe there will be no elections in June or July, because the situation within the electorate has not changed significantly since last year, and the data we have indicates that the SNS can no longer retain power,” said Radovanović.
He noted that the local elections showed the mobilisation of a large number of new voters who support the opposition, but also that the authorities retained the majority of voters who had previously supported them.
“For that reason, I believe the government’s strategy will primarily be to break up the anti-regime front and create as many divisions as possible, in order to push as many voters as possible back into abstention. However, so far all such attempts have been largely unsuccessful,” Radovanović assessed.
Danijela Nestorović, an MP from the Ecological Uprising Movement, told NIN that the issue of elections is not about timing, but about the intentions of the authorities.
She stressed that the opposition must be ready for elections at any moment.
“Those who avoid the people schedule elections in the middle of summer. The idea of elections at the end of June or the beginning of July is not a matter of political timing, but of political intent. In any serious democracy, elections are called in a way that enables the highest possible level of citizen participation. Here, as a rule, a date is sought that will reduce that participation,” she said.
According to her, summer elections mean empty cities, people on holiday, weaker oversight of the electoral process, and lower turnout.
“That is not a coincidence; it is a pattern. The authorities are not seeking legitimacy, but a result. If you ask whether they are playing the low-turnout card, the answer is unequivocally yes. Lower turnout means easier control, fewer unpredictable votes, and greater scope for manipulating the electoral process,” Nestorović emphasised.
Miloš Stanković, a member of the Presidency of the New Democratic Party of Serbia, believes that there is no longer a favourable moment for the SNS to call elections.
“Whenever elections are called, the ruling coalition will lose them. From that perspective, it does not matter whether elections are held in summer, autumn, or winter, but it is in the interest of the citizens of Serbia that a change of government happens as soon as possible. People within the SNS are aware of this; they clearly have no adequate solution to the social crisis they themselves have created and are aware of the public discontent,” Stanković said.
As he added, the New DSS is ready at any moment not only for elections, but also to “take the lead of the authentic right, which, together with students and the rest of the opposition, will contribute to a change of government”.
Students unofficially interviewed by NIN journalists say that they have been ready to go to the polls ever since May last year, when they formally demanded that the authorities call elections.
However, they believe that the government fears elections, especially after the recent local ones, which, as they say, showed that despite all the pressure, it can no longer win as much support as it once did.
(Danas, 23.04.2026)
https://www.danas.rs/vesti/politika/radovanovic-psg-nece-biti-izbora-u-junu-i-julu/