New Progressive Party Leader Ready for Talks about Potential Early Election

Milos Vucevic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Newly elected president of the Serbian Progressive Party Milos Vucevic said on May 27 that the Progressives were ready to discuss possible early elections with all other political parties, but reiterated that there would be no interim Serbian cabinet.

"We are ready to talk with all political parties on the matter of possible early elections, too, or the date of holding the elections. It is absolutely legitimate to put that forward and it can always be on the table between political parties," Vucevic told reporters after a Progressive Party electoral assembly in Kragujevac, where he was elected party president.

Vucevic, the sitting minister of defense, reiterated that there would be no interim cabinets, stressing that this was a hard line. He announced that the Progressive Party would take part in forming a People's Movement for the State.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a May 26 rally of his followers in Belgrade that he was stepping down as Progressive Party president and that the establishment of the Movement for the People and the State would begin late in June. He added that the Movement would be a "bulwark to keep the state safe over the next two or three years of crisis that are decisive to Serbia's future."