Expert: Progressive Party Caused Strengthening of Serbia’s Right

Florian Bieber (prinstcreen: YouTube

Florian Bieber, an expert on Balkan affairs, has said that the relative success Serbia’s right-wing parties achieved in the recent elections was contributed to by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party – and constitutes a ploy enabling Progressive leader and incumbent President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic to present himself to his Western partners as a moderate political option.

In an April 5 interview for the Voice of America, Bieber – a professor at the University of Graz –stated that while the Serbian right did take advantage of the war in Ukraine by campaigning on a pro-Russian platform, the Serbian Progressive Party also played “a significant role” in the success of the country’s far-right.

“There are two dimensions [at play]. One is, without a doubt, the war in Ukraine and the whole issue of the confrontation between the West and Russia – and that is what the far-right and anti-Western parties used as a springboard. [Yet a] significant role here was also played by the Progressives, who did not use a pro-Russian message in their campaign but rather [promised] to maintain peace and stability, [emphasizing] their wish to continue good relations with both Russia and the EU, without openly supporting Russia’s [foreign] policy,” Bieber said.

According to him, “the space” left wide open by the Progressives’ position was “taken advantage of by far-right parties” because pro-Russian sentiment existed in Serbia even prior to the Ukrainian war – a situation he claims “the ruling party cultivated for years via its media”. Hence, the Serbian right “is essentially the result of an atmosphere engendered by the ruling [Progressive] party,” the professor explained.

Bieber concluded by saying that the current distribution of power between Serbia’s various political options suits President Vucic – despite his laments that Serbia has “dramatically shifted to the right,” voiced in the evening of Election Day. Bieber maintained that Vucic’s words regarding the strengthening of the country’s right are, in fact, an attempt to “justify to his Western partners his refusal to introduce sanctions on Russia.” A strong far-right, Bieber claimed, “makes things easier for [Vucic], because [he can] present himself as a more moderate option, an option in the middle: there are those far more radical and if the West does not support him, even more radical options will take power [in Serbia],” Bieber said.