Serbian president-elect and current prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said that he was “close to deciding” on who would succeed him in the latter position. Vucic came as winner in presidential elections held on April 2.
As he said, he now has two or three candidates for premier’s post. “Some of them are party members, some are not”, Vucic said adding that he would come out with the name of the new PM in the next thirty days.
When asked by a journalist whether ministers Ana Brnabic, Ivica Dacic and Dusan Vujovic were among the candidates, Vucic said “some of them yes, and some of them not”. Considering the possibility that picking non-party member for PM post could incite dissatisfaction within the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Vucic said that “there are always those dissatisfied”. Vucic is also the SNS leader.
There are quite different people within SNS, he claimed – “from civil liberals, to nationalists and communists”. SNS now enjoys popular support of some 57, 58 percent, Vucic claimed, adding this was unprecedented in the history of Serbian politics. He compared SNS with German Christian-Democratic Union. “When you have people of different profiles, just like Konrad Adenauer had when he was founding CDU, you certainly have some problems and dissatisfaction”.
Vucic also referred to the possibility of sacking national broadcaster’s (RTS) directors, an idea launched by labour minister Aleksandar Vulin. “All the yellows remained there (in RTS)”, Vucic said using a pejorative term for Democratic Party (DS) members. DS was in power until 2012; he did not specifiy who was “yellow” in RTS.
Vulin claimed that RTS editors were “frightened” over ongoing students protests giving them too much space in central news programs. The protesters also demanded sackings in RTS, but they claimed that the editors were siding with Vucic.
Vucic did not support nor rebuff Vulin’s suggestion.
(IBNA, 17.04.2017)
http://www.balkaneu.com/vucic-to-pick-a-new-prime-minister/
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