Vucic: Protests are Violent, Snap Elections Before Year is Out, Maybe Even in Early Summer

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN PRESIDENCY/DIMITRIJE GOLL)

In a March 31 evening statement, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic accused the protestors gathered in front of the Belgrade University Head Office building of violence and alluded to the possibility of snap elections being called by late June.

During a phone-in on Informer TV, Vucic stated that early elections will be called before the year’s end and maybe even by St. Vitus Day, the important Serbian holiday celebrated on June 28. Vucic did not specify whether said elections would be only parliamentary or include a presidential vote as well. “You never know. They asked for them, we’ll see when the elections will happen. There isn’t much to it,” Vucic said of the anti-regime movement led by the country’s disgruntled university students and added that the authorities will respect the people’s electoral will regardless of what it is.

Vucic went on to claim that the protests in Belgrade are a “violent” expression of “post-electoral trauma,” since the opposition failed to win the March 29 regular local elections in ten municipalities. “We witnessed the violence. The pure, unadulterated violence of them attacking police,” the president stated, maintaining that, “on the whole, there were no more than some 3,900 people” at the protest in front of the University Head Offices.

Asked about Rector Vladan Djokic’s speech from the University Head Offices balcony, Vucic opined that the address was political, which makes it a violation of the law.