French media: Serbia’s Vucic firmly holds power

NEWS 04.04.202210:51 0 komentara
Tanjug / Zoran Žestić

The French media reported that Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, who won the first round of the presidential elections, is firmly holding power.

With the success of the presidential elections, Vucic is extending a decade of control of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) over Serbia, presenting himself as a guarantor of stability in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, Le Monde newspaper said.

However, the dominance of the ruling coalition in the parliament should be less than the previous number of seats, it added.

AFP news agency described Vucic as a former ultranationalist associate of the former powerful man Slobodan Milosevic but later became a friend of the West.

At the same time, his country of seven million, a candidate for membership in the European Union, maintains close ties with „brotherly“ Russia and attracts billions of Chinese investments, the agency added.

Critics accuse Vucic of grabbing almost complete control in the society, AFP said, citing citizens saying that the President of Serbia is everywhere, on television, in all newspapers and that he had usurped the entire public space.

Vucic presented himself for the elections as the only antidote to the uncertainties stemming from the war in Ukraine, with the slogan „peace and stability,“ the French news agency added.

Vucic was also proud to have completed massive infrastructure programs, including the highway network.

Many Serbs are grateful to him for refusing to recognise Kosovo’s independence and for using his international ties to provide millions of coronavirus vaccines to Serbia when it was difficult to obtain them.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the situation has been different. Serbia has condemned Russia’s aggression at the UN but has refused to join European sanctions on Russia, which continues to supply gas at friendly prices.

Critics say Vucic for his populism and authoritarianism, but the authorities accuse them of being „foreign mercenaries or degenerates“, the media report.

AFP recalled the American non-governmental organisation Freedom House report from 2021, which said Vucic threw his opponents to their knees „by erosion of political rights and civil liberties, pressure on independent media, opposition and civil society organisations“.

Other media in France, this time, paid less attention to Serbia’s elections. They limited themselves to news agency reports on the results, as the first round of presidential elections will be held in France on Sunday. At the same time, international attention is focused on the war in Ukraine.

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