Bozo Prelevic: Vucic's Greatest Enemies are His Party Comrades

Bozo Prelevic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Bozo Prelevic, an attorney and member of the Parliament of Free Serbia, has said that, at the moment, incumbent Serbian President and Progressive Party leader Aleksandar Vucic's greatest enemies are his party comrades -- not the opposition -- and added his belief that Vucic has become disgusted with his own party.

In an interview for the Feb. 3 edition of the Novi Magazin weekly, Prelevic stated that polls show a significant drop in Vucic's ratings. "Even his constant presence in the media is now backfiring," Prelevic explained. "Marketing experts claim that the most powerful anti-Vucic campaign comprises his ministers' public outbursts. This is why Vucic has been distancing himself from his own party. [He]'s attempting to boost his ratings by attacking his own people," Prelevic maintained.

According to him, Vucic is growing "disgusted" by his own party because he can no longer control it. "[Vucic] has drawn a defensive line around his family and intends to leave the Progressive party. He is more and more frequently accusing his ministers and his security coordinator of plotting against him and preparing an assassination. His own people are currently a greater problem for him than is the opposition," Prelevic said.

Prelevic believes that the April elections will be the beginning of the fall of the Serbian Progressive Party and that the opposition has a true chance of winning Belgrade's local vote. With the right campaign, Prelevic also thinks Vucic could seriously be undermined in both the parliamentary and presidential elections as well. In the attorney's opinion, the Progressives' greatest advantage is that 60 percent of Serbia does not have access to independent online media and are, thus, ignorant of the "criminal" activities of their country's leadership.