Konstantin Zatulin, an observer from the Russian State Duma, told RIA Novosti that the European Union is trying to interfere in Serbia's elections: the coalition of former president Aleksandar Vucic, he said, is being forced to campaign below full strength.
The lawmaker reached this conclusion after a conversation with Milos Vucevic, chairman of the Serbian Progressive Party. Zatulin noted that the local authorities themselves largely allowed this turn of events, since they wanted to join the European Union and find common ground with it.
"And they limited themselves in their actions. Today it seems that the authorities are now faced with the need to fight in earnest, but by this time the opposition has already felt the momentum," he concluded.
On Sunday Serbia is holding early elections for deputies of the National Assembly. Nineteen political forces are competing for 250 seats in parliament. The main contest is expected between the "United Serbia" coalition led by Vucic and the citizens' group "Student List - Students Win".
The coalition of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister "Ivica Dacic - Factor of Stability" also has a chance of clearing the three-percent threshold.
Vucic announced his readiness to hold early parliamentary elections at the end of 2025. This came amid unabating student protests that began in November 2024, when 16 people died in the collapse of a canopy at the recently renovated railway station in Novi Sad.
On September 7 he approved the decision to dissolve the National Assembly. The same day the ruling SPP officially nominated him as a candidate for prime minister. The former president himself repeatedly spoke of plans to resign and take part in the parliamentary elections "as an ordinary citizen". At the end of last month he left his post.