President Aleksandar Vučić had previously announced St George’s Day (Đurđevdan) as the day he would reveal when elections would be held. Now he says he will do so in around ten days.
The mini-saga surrounding the date of Serbia’s snap parliamentary elections continues – or rather, the date when the election date itself will be announced.
“We will certainly have a decision in about ten days,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Informer TV on Tuesday (5 May). Thus, St George’s Day arrived – a holiday Vučić had on several occasions earlier pointed to as the day he would announce when the elections would take place – but those promises were not fulfilled.
He underlined that everything depends on the elections, adding that he fears God and is concerned about global circumstances affecting Serbia’s future. “I have no fear of my opponents for two reasons. First, I have seen enthusiasm among them, I have seen desire, I see their fighting spirit – when you have the energy to stick over a hundred stickers in a single lift. Beneath those stickers, there is no substance,” Vučić said.
The Serbian president also stated that there is one group of people oriented “civic or anti-Serbian,” while another group is “even worse.” “These are the ones who pretend to be great nationalists, but all their lives they long to sing some civic song with them,” Vučić said.
Asked about citizens’ criticisms regarding the existence of injustice “at the local level,” Vučić said the responsibility is partly “on us.” “It is partly because you must respect the constitution and the permanence of judicial office, and you must respect the independence of the prosecution,” he said.
As reported by Beta news agency, Vučić also said that in the coming weeks, he will launch a portal where citizens will be able to report all “arrogant officials,” and he announced what he described as a “fight” against the attitude expressed by some: “Do you know who I am?”
“But when it comes to that well-known question of ours – ‘Do you know who I am?’ – which you hear every day from people who park improperly and arrogantly, people who refuse to wait in line, who won’t behave decently in public because they must display power in every possible way… When I hear that, I understand anyone who has no interest even in discussing results,” Vučić said.
Vučić’s trial balloons
“There are no tricks when it comes to elections. The people decide what kind of future they want and to whom they wish to entrust it,” Vučić added. Looking at the timeline, the possibility of elections being held on Vidovdan now almost certainly falls away – something Vučić himself had previously hinted at. However, that turned out to be a trial balloon.
It remains to be seen whether elections will indeed be held on 12 July, in the middle of the summer holidays, or whether that mentioned date was also Vučić’s way of prompting citizens’ responses in the surveys he receives daily. Another option he mentioned was the autumn of this year.
By law, if regular parliamentary elections are delayed, the process could be stretched out until the end of 2027.
(Vreme, Danas, 06.05.2026)
https://vreme.com/vesti/djurdjevdan-dosao-vucic-oteze-sa-odlukom-o-izborima/